The Dance of Death

This edition is of some importance with respect to the question as to the priority of the publication of the work in France or Germany, or, in other words, whether at Lyons or Basle. It is accompanied by some lines addressed to the reader, which begin in the following manner:

Accipe jucundo præsentia carmina vultu,Seu Germane legis, sive ea Galle legis:In quibus extremæ qualis sit mortis imagoReddidit imparibus Musa Latina modisGallia quæ dederat lepidis epigrammata verbisTeutona convertens est imitata manus.Da veniam nobis doctissime Galle, videbisVersibus appositis reddita si qua parum.

Now, had the work been originally published in the German language, Æmylius, himself a German, would, as already observed, scarcely have preferred a French text for his Latin version. This circumstance furnishes likewise, an argument against the supposed existence of German verses at the bottom of the early impressions of the cuts already mentioned.

A copy of this edition, now in the library of the British Museum, was presented to Prince Edward by Dr. William Bill, accompanied with a Latin dedication, dated from Cambridge, 19 July, 1546, wherein he recommends the prince’s attention to the figures in the book, in order to remind him that all must die to obtain immortality; and enlarges on the necessity of living well. He concludes with a wish that the Lord will long and happily preserve his life, and that he may finally reign to all eternity with his most Christian father. Bill was appointed one of the King’s chaplains in ordinary, 1551, and was made the first Dean of Westminster in the reign of Elizabeth.

IV. “Imagines Mortis. Duodecim imaginibus præter priores, totidemque inscriptionibus præter epigrammata è Gallicis à Georgio Æmylio in Latinum versa, cumulatæ. Quæ his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit. Lugduni sub scuto Coloniensi, 1547.” With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, “Excudebat Joannes Frellonius, 1547,” 12mo. This edition has twelve more cuts than those of 1538 and 1542, and eleven more than that of 1545, being, the soldier, the gamblers, the drunkards, the fool, the robber, the blind man, the wine carrier, and four of boys. In all fifty-three. Five of the additional cuts have a single line only in the frames, whilst the others have a double one. All are nearly equal in merit to those which first appeared in 1538.

V. “Icones Mortis, Duodecim imaginibus præter priores, totidemque inscriptionibus, præter epigrammata è Gallicis à Georgio Æmylio in Latinum versa, cumulatæ. Quæ his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit, Lugduni sub scuto Coloniensi, 1547.” 12mo. At the end, Excudebat Johannes Frellonius, 1547. This edition contains fifty-three cuts, and is precisely similar to the one described immediately before, except that it is entitled Icones, instead of Imagines Mortis.

VI. “Les Images de la Mort. Auxquelles sont adjoustées douze figures. Davantage, la medecine de l’ame, la consolation des malades, un sermon de mortalité, par Sainct Cyprian, un sermon de patience, par Sainct Jehan Chrysostome. A Lyon. A l’escu de Cologne, chez Jehan Frellon, 1547.” With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, “Imprimé a Lyon à l’escu de Coloigne, par Jehan Frellon, 1547. 12mo.” The verses at bottom of the cuts the same as in the edition of 1538, with similar ones for the additional. In all, fifty-three cuts.

VII. “Simolachri historie, e figure de la morte. La medicina de l’anima. Il modo, e la via di consolar gl’infermi. Un sermone di San Cipriano, de la mortalità. Due orationi, l’un a Dio, e l’altra à Christo. Un sermone di S. Giovan. Chrisostomo, che ci essorta à patienza. Aiuntovi di nuovo molte figure mai piu stampate. In Lyone appresso Giovan Frellone MDXLIX.” 12mo. With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, the same device on a larger scale in a circle. Fifty-three cuts. The scriptural passages are in Latin. To this edition Frellon has prefixed a preface, in which he complains of a pirated copy of the work in Italian by a printer at Venice, which will be more particularly noticed hereafter. He maintains that the cuts in this spurious edition are far less beautiful than the French ones, and this passage goes very far in aid of the argument that they are not of German origin. Frellon, by way of revenge, and to save the trouble of making a new translation of the articles that compose the volume, makes use of that of his Italian competitor.

VIII. “Icones Mortis. Duodecim Imaginibus præter priores, totidemque inscriptionibus, præter epigrammata è Gallicis à Georgio Æmylio in Latinum versa, cumulatæ. Quæ his addita sunt, sequens pagina commonstrabit. Basileæ, 1554. 12mo.” With fifty-three cuts. It would not be very easy to account for the absence of the name of the Basle printer.

IX. “Les Images de la Mort, auxquelles sont adjoustees dix sept figures. Davantage, la medecine de l’ame. La consolation des malades. Un sermon de mortalité, par Saint Cyprian. Un sermon de patience, par Saint Jehan Chrysostome. A Lyon, par Jehan Frellon, 1562.” With the device of the crab and butterfly. At the end, “A Lyon, par Symphorien Barbier,” 12mo. This edition has five additional cuts, viz. 1. A group of boys, as a triumphal procession, with military trophies. 2. The bride; the husband plays on a lute, whilst Death leads the wife in tears. 3. The bridegroom led by Death blowing a trumpet. Both these subjects are appropriately described in the verses below. 4. A group of boy warriors, one on horseback with a standard. 5. Another group of boys with drums, horns, and trumpets. These additional cuts are designed and engraved in the same masterly style as the others, but it is now impossible to ascertain the artists who have executed them. From the decorations to several books published at Lyons it is very clear that there were persons in that city capable of the task. Holbein had been dead eight years, after a long residence in London.

Du Verdier, in his Bibliothèque Françoise, mentions this edition, and adds that it was translated from the French into Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, and English;113 a statement that stands greatly in need of confirmation as to the last three languages, but this writer, on too many occasions, deserves but small compliment for his accuracy.

X. “Imagines Mortis: item epigrammata è Gall. à G. Æmilio in Latinum versa. Lugdun. Frellonius, 1574.” 12mo.114

XI. In 1654 a Dutch work appeared with the following title, “De Doodt vermaskert met swerelts ydelheyt afghedaen door G. V. Wolsschaten, verciert met de constighe Belden vanden maerden Schilder Hans Holbein. i. e. Death masked, with the world’s vanity, by G. V. Wolsschaten, ornamented with the ingenious images of the famous painter Hans Holbein. T’Antwerpen, by Petrus Bellerus.” This is on an engraved frontispiece of tablet, over which are spread a man’s head and the skin of two arms supported by two Deaths blowing trumpets. Below, a spade, a pilgrim’s staff, a scepter, and a crosier, with a label, on which is “sceptra ligonibus æquat.” Then follows another title-page, with the same words, and the addition of Geeraerdt Van Wolsschaten’s designation, “Prevost van sijne conincklijcke Majesteyts Munten des Heertoogdoms van Brabant, &c. MDCLIV.” 12mo. The author of the text, which is mixed up with poetry and historical matter, was prefect of the mint in the Duchy of Brabant.115 This edition contains eighteen cuts, among which the following subjects are from the original blocks. 1. Three boys. 2. The married couple. 3. The pedlar. 4. The shipwreck. 5. The beggar. 6. The corrupt judge. 7. The astrologer. 8. The old man. 9. The physician. 10. The priest with the eucharist. 11. The monk. 12. The abbess. 13. The abbot. 14. The duke. Four others, viz. the child, the emperor, the countess, and the pope, are copies, and very badly engraved. The blocks of the originals appear to have fallen into the hands of an artist, who probably resided at Antwerp, and several of them have his mark,

, concerning which more will be said under one of the ensuing articles. As many engravings on wood by this person appeared in the middle of the sixteenth century, it is probable that he had already used these original blocks in some edition of the Dance of Death that does not seem to have been recorded. There are evident marks of retouching in these cuts, but when they first appeared cannot now be ascertained. The mark might have been placed on them, either to denote ownership, according to the usual practice at that time, or to indicate that they had been repaired by that particular artist.

All these editions, except that of 1574, have been seen and carefully examined on the present occasion: the supposed one of 1530 has not been included in this list, and remains to be seen and accurately described, if existing, by competent witnesses.

Papillon, in his Traité de la gravure en bois, has given an elaborate, but, as usual with him, a very faulty description of these engravings. He enlarges on the beauty of the last cut with the allegorical coat of arms, and particularly on that of the gentleman whose right hand he states to be placed on its side, whilst it certainly is extended, and touches with the back of it the mantle on which the helmet and shield of arms are placed. He errs likewise in making the female look towards a sort of dog’s head, according to him, under the mantle and right-hand of her husband, which, he adds, might be taken for the pummell of his sword, and that she fondles this head with her right hand, &c. not one word of which is correct. He says that a good impression of this print would be well worth a Louis d’or to an amateur. He appears to have been in possession of the block belonging to the subject of the lovers preceded by Death with a drum; but it had been spoiled by the stroke of a plane.

COPIES OF THE ABOVE DESIGNS, AND ENGRAVED ALSO ON WOOD

I. At the head of these, in point of merit, must be placed the Italian spurious edition mentioned in No. VII. of the preceding list. It is entitled “Simolachri historie, e figure de la morte, ove si contiene la medicina de l’anima utile e necessaria, non solo à gli ammalati, ma tutte i sani. Et appresso, il modo, e la via di consolar gl’infermi. Un sermone di S. Cipriano, de la mortalità. Due orationi, l’una a Dio, e l’altra à Christo da dire appresso l’ammalato oppresso da grave infermitá. Un sermone di S. Giovan Chrisostomo, che ci essorta à patienza; e che tratta de la consumatione del secolo presente, e del secondo avenimento di Jesu Christo, de la eterna felicita de giusti, de la pena e dannatione de rei; et altre cose necessarie à ciascun Christiano, per ben vivere, e ben morire. Con gratia e privilegio de l’illustriss. Senato Vinitiano, per anni dieci. Appresso Vincenzo Vaugris al segno d’Erasmo, MDXLV.” 12mo. With a device of the brazen serpent, repeated at the end. It has all the cuts in the genuine edition of the same date, except that of the beggar at the gate. It contains a very moral dedication to Signor Antonio Calergi by the publisher Vaugris or Valgrisi; in which, with unjustifiable confidence, he enlarges on the great beauty of the work, the cuts in which are, in his estimation, not merely equal, but far superior to those in the French edition in design and engraving. They certainly approach the nearest to the fine originals of all the imitations, but will be found on comparison to be inferior. The mark

on the cut of the duchess sitting up in bed, with the two Deaths, one of whom is fiddling, whilst the other pulls at the clothes, is retained, but this could not be with a view to pass these engravings as originals, after what is stated in the dedication. An artist’s eye will easily perceive the difference in spirit and decision of drawing. In the ensuing year 1546, Valgrisi republished this book in Latin, but without the dedication, and there are impressions of them on single sheets, one of which has at the bottom, “In Venetia, MDLXVIII. Fra. Valerio Faenzi Inquis. Apreso Luca Bertelli.” So that they required a license from the Inquisition.

II. In the absence of any other Italian editions of the “Simolachri,” it is necessary to mention that twenty-four of the last-mentioned cuts were introduced in a work of extreme rarity, and which has escaped the notice of bibliographers, intitled “Discorsi Morali dell’ eccell. Sig. Fabio Glissenti contra il dispiacer del morire. Detto Athanatophilia Venetia, 1609.” 4to. These twenty-four were probably all that then remained; and five others of subjects belonging also to the “Simolachri,” are inserted in this work, but very badly imitated, and two of them reversed. In the subject of the Pope there is in the original a brace of grotesque devils, one of which is completely erased in Glissenti, and a plug inserted where the other had been scooped out. A similar rasure of a devil occurs in the subject of the two rich men in conversation, the demon blowing with a bellows into his ear, whilst a poor beggar in vain touches him to be heard. Besides these cuts, Glissenti’s work is ornamented with a great number of others, connected in some way or other with the subject of Death, which the author discusses in almost every possible variety of manner. He appears to have been a physician, and an exceedingly pious man. His portrait is prefixed to every division of the work, which consists of five dialogues.

III. In an anonymous work, intitled “Tromba sonora per richiamar i morti viventi dalla tomba della colpa alla vita della gratia. In Venetia, 1670.” 8vo. Of which there had already been three editions; there are six of the prints from the originals, as in the “Simolachri,” &c. No. I. and a few others, the same as the additional ones to Glissenti’s work.

In another volume, intitled “Il non plus ultra di tutte le scienze ricchezze honori, e diletti del mondo, &c. In Venetia, 1677.” 24mo. There are twenty-five of the cuts as in the Simolachri, and several others from those added to Glissenti.

IV. A set of cuts which do not seem to have belonged to any work. They are very close copies of the originals. On the subject of the Duchess in bed, the letter S appears on the base of one of the pillars or posts, instead of the original

, and it is also seen on the cut of the soldier pierced by the lance of Death. Two have the date 1546. In that of the monk, whom, in the original, Death seizes by the cowl or hood, the artist has made a whimsical alteration, by converting the hood into a fool’s cap with bells and asses’ ears, and the monk’s wallet into a fool’s bauble. It is probable that he was of the reformed religion.

V. “Imagines Mortis, his accesserunt epigrammata è Gallico idiomate à Georgio Æmylio in Latinum translata, &c. Coloniæ apud hæredes Arnoldi Birckmanni, anno 1555. 12mo.” With fifty-three cuts. This may be regarded as a surreptitious edition of No. IV. of the originals by

p. 106. The cuts are by the artist mentioned in No. IX. of those originals, whose mark is

which is here found on five of them. They are all reversed, except the nobleman; and although not devoid of merit, they are not only very inferior to the fine originals, but also to the Italian copies in No. I. The first two subjects are newly designed; the two Devils in that of the Pope are omitted, and there are several variations, always for the worse, in many of the others, of which a tasteless example is found in that of Death and the soldier, where the thigh bone, as the very appropriate weapon of Death, is here converted into the common-place dart. The mark

in the original cut of the Duchess in bed, is here omitted, without the substitution of any other. This edition was republished by the same persons, without any variation, successively in 1557, 1566, 1567, and 1573.116

Papillon, in his “Traité sur la gravure en bois,”117 when noticing the above-mentioned mark, has, amidst the innumerable errors that abound in his otherwise curious work, been led into a mistake of an exceedingly ludicrous nature, by converting the owner of the mark into a cardinal. He had found it on the cuts to an edition of Faerno’s fables, printed at Antwerp, 1567, which is dedicated to Cardinal Borromeo by Silvio Antoniano, professor of Belles Lettres at Rome, afterwards secretary to Pope Pius IV. and at length himself a Cardinal. He was the editor of Faerno’s work. Another of Papillon’s blunders is equally curious and absurd. He had seen an edition of the Emblems of Sambucus, with cuts, bearing the mark

in which there is a fine portrait of the author with his favourite dog, and under the latter the word BOMBO, which Papillon gravely states to be the name of the engraver; and finding the same word on another of the emblems which has also the dog, he concludes that all the cuts which have not the

were engraved by the same BOMBO. Had Papillon, a good artist in his time, but an ignorant man, been able to comprehend the verses belonging to that particular emblem, he would have seen that the above word was merely the name of the dog, as Sambucus himself has declared, whilst paying a laudable tribute to the attachment of the faithful companion of his travels. Brulliot, in his article on the mark

118 has mentioned Papillon’s ascription of it to Silvio Antoniano, but without correcting the blunder, as he ought to have done. This monogram appears on five of the cuts to the present edition of the “Imagines Mortis;” but M. De Murr and his follower Janssen, are not warranted in supposing the rest of them to have been engraved by a different artist.

It will perhaps not be deemed an unimportant digression to introduce a few remarks concerning the owner of the above monogram. It is by no means clear whether he was a designer or an engraver, or even both. There is a chiaroscuro print of a group of saints, engraved by Peter Kints, an obscure artist, with the name of Antony Sallaerts at length, and the mark. Here he appears as a designer. M. Malpé, the Besançon author of “Notices sur les graveurs,” speaks of Sallaerts as an excellent painter, born at Brussels about 1576, which date cannot possibly apply to the artist in question; but at the same time, he adds, that he is said to have engraved on wood the cuts in a little catechism printed at Antwerp that have the monogram

. These are certainly very beautiful, in accordance with many others with the same mark, and very superior in design to those which have it in the “Imagines Mortis.” M. Malpé has also an article for Antony Silvyus or Silvius, born at Antwerp about 1525, and he mentions several books with engravings and the mark in question, which he gives to the same person. M. Brulliot expresses a doubt as to this artist; but it is very certain there was a family of that name, and surnamed, or at least sometimes called, Bosche or Bush, which indeed is more likely to have been the real Flemish name Latinized into Silvius. Foppens119 has mentioned an Antony Silvius, a schoolmaster at Antwerp, in 1565, and several other members of this family. Two belonging to it were engravers, and another a writing master.

Whether the artist in question was a Sallaerts or a Silvius, it is certain that Plantin, the celebrated printer, employed him to decorate several of his volumes, and it is to be regretted that an unsuccessful search has been made for him in Plantin’s account books, that were not long since preserved, with many articles belonging to him, in his house at Antwerp. His mark also appears in several books printed in England during the reign of Elizabeth, and particularly on a beautiful set of initial letters, some of which contain the story of Cupid and Psyche, from the supposed designs by Raphael, and other subjects from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: these have been counterfeited, and perhaps in England. The initial G, in this alphabet, with the subject of Leda and the swan, was inadvertently prefixed to the sacred name at the beginning of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews in the Bishop’s Bible, printed by Rd. Jugge in 1572, and in one of his Common Prayer Books. An elegant portrait of Edward VI. with the mark

is likewise on Jugge’s edition of the New Testament, 1552, 4to. and there is reason to believe that Jugge employed this artist, as the same monogram appears on a cut of his device of the pelican.

VI. In the German volume, the title of which is already given in the first article of the engravings from the Basle painting,120 there are twenty-nine subjects belonging to the present work; the rest relating to the Basle dance, except two or three that are not in either of them. These have fallen into the hands of a modern bookseller, but there can be no doubt that there were other editions which contained the whole set. The most of them have the letters G. S. with the graving tool, and one has the date 1576. The name of this artist is unknown; but M. Bartsch has mentioned several other engravings by him, omitting, however, the present, which, it is to be observed, sometimes vary in design from the originals.

VII. “Imagines Mortis illustratæ epigrammatis Georgii Æmylii theol. doctoris. Fraxineus Æmylio Suo. Criminis ut poenam mortem mors sustulit una: sic te immortalem mortis imago facit.” With a cut of Death and the old man. This is the middle part only of a work, intitled “Libellus Davidis Chytræi de morte et vita æterna. Editio postrema; cui additæ sunt imagines mortis, illustrata Epigrammatis D. Georgio Æmylio, Witebergæ. Impressus à Matthæo Welack, anno MDXC.” 12mo. The cuts, fifty-three in number, are, on the whole, tolerably faithful, but coarsely engraved. In the subject of the Pope the two Devils are omitted, and, in that of the Counsellor, the Demon blowing with a bellows into his ear is also wanting. Some have the mark

, and one that of

with a knife or graving tool.

VIII. “Todtentanz durch alle stendt der menschen, &c. furgebildet mit figuren. S. Gallen, 1581.” 4to. See Janssen, Essai sur l’origine de la gravure, i. 122, who seems to make them copies of the originals.

IX. The last article in this list of the old copies, though prior in date to some of the preceding, is placed here as differing materially from them with respect to size. It is a small folio, with the following title, “Todtentantz,

Das menschlichs leben anders nichtDann nur ain lauff zum TodUnd Got ain nach seim glauben richtDess findstu klaren tschaidO Mensch hicrinn mit andacht liszUnd fassz zu hertzen dasSo wirdsttu Ewigs hayls gewiszKanst sterben dester bas.MDXLIIIIDesine longævos exposcere sedulus annosInque bonis multos annumerare diesAtque hodie, fatale velit si rumpere filumAtropos, impavido pectore disce mori.”

At the end, “Gedruckt inn der kaiserlichen Reychstatt Augspurg durch Jobst Denecker Formschneyder.” This edition is not only valuable for its extreme rarity, but for the very accurate and spirited manner in which the fine original cuts are copied. It contains all the subjects that were then published, but not arranged as those had been. It has the addition of one singular print, intitled “Der Eebrecher,” i. e. the Adulterer, representing a man discovering the adulterer in bed with his wife, and plunging his sword through both of them, Death guiding his hands. On the opposite page to each engraving there is a dialogue between Death and the party, and at bottom a Latin hexameter. The subject of the Pleader has the unknown mark

, and on that of the Duchess in bed, there is the date 1542. From the above colophon we are to infer that Dennecker, or as he is sometimes, and perhaps more properly, called De Necker or De Negher, was the engraver, as he is known to have executed many other engravings on wood, especially for Hans Schaufelin, with whom he was connected. He was also employed in the celebrated triumph of Maximilian, and in a collection of saints, to whom the family of that emperor was related.