DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30695#0034
VI
WORKS EXECUTED IN
[Ars Mem.
forgotten that, nearly forty years before, it was notieed and commented
upon by Sehelhorn, in a very curious and animated manner. In the
first volume of his Amcenitates Literarice, p. 5-13, there is a long account
of it—‘ dabimus (says Schelhorn) jam opusculi hujus rarissimi, adhuc
nemini, quod sciam, observati, dilucidam et accuratam, quantum fieri
poterit, notitiam, gaudiique nostri te etiam reddemus participem.’
He ealls the character of it ‘ Gothicus, majusculus, ater, crassus, rudis
informis.’ ‘ Videas (says he) hic nonnunquam literas atramento con-
fluenti deformatas, ventremque illarum, alias album & vacuum, atra-
mentaria macula repletum, ut scilicet inde artis ignoscas infantiam.’
He admits that the work ‘ compendiosam* rationem potissima quatuor
Evangeliorum argumenta memoriae mandandi tradit;’ and further,
somewhat humourously, thus remarks : * Fateor, in sola antiquitate et
raritate ponendum esse omne hujus libri pretium, cetera incompti,
barbari & horridi, immanemque illam squalem, quee ea setate linguas
bonasque artes obsedit, ubique referentis.’ &c. Ibid. Jungendres,
about ten years afterwards, noticed the same work—(‘ saepius quin-
quaginta Coronatorum precio aestimatum’—) referring to the ‘ full
description’ of it, by Schelhorn. Not. Charact. Libror. a Typog. Incunab.
&c. p. 7. But it is time to describe the volume in regular order.
The work consists of a number of rude wood-cuts (as the accom-
panying fac-simile demonstrates) illustrative of the principal events
recorded in the several Gospels. The original intention of this pub-
lication, as lias been before observed, was, to impress these events upon
the minds of young people. Opposite each cut, which has the cliap-
ters marked in Arabic numerals, there is a page of text, enumerating
tlie contents of each chapter, which is referred to, numerically, in tlie
cut. An examination of the fac-simile will best explain this.
It begins with the Gospel of St. John, which is illustrated by three
cuts, and three corresponding pages. As the Eagle is the symbol of
this Apostle, so all the events are inscribed upon this eagle, which is
made to stand upright. In like manner St. Matthew is illustrated
by five cuts of an Angel; and the accompanying fac-simile, with the
ensuing text, will give a pretty correct idea of the method observed
throughout the whole work.
* It probably might have fumished a hint, however crude, to some of those scriptural
illustrations of whicli Wolfius, in his Biblioth. Hebraiea, part ii. p. 247, gives a catalogue,
under the title of ‘ Introductiones in Scripturam Sacram Mnemonicae, ubi summa librorum
capitumve Biblicorum nunc per Cannina, nunc per Tabuias, nunc per Quaestiones et
Responsiones, nunc alia compendii via proponitur.’
WORKS EXECUTED IN
[Ars Mem.
forgotten that, nearly forty years before, it was notieed and commented
upon by Sehelhorn, in a very curious and animated manner. In the
first volume of his Amcenitates Literarice, p. 5-13, there is a long account
of it—‘ dabimus (says Schelhorn) jam opusculi hujus rarissimi, adhuc
nemini, quod sciam, observati, dilucidam et accuratam, quantum fieri
poterit, notitiam, gaudiique nostri te etiam reddemus participem.’
He ealls the character of it ‘ Gothicus, majusculus, ater, crassus, rudis
informis.’ ‘ Videas (says he) hic nonnunquam literas atramento con-
fluenti deformatas, ventremque illarum, alias album & vacuum, atra-
mentaria macula repletum, ut scilicet inde artis ignoscas infantiam.’
He admits that the work ‘ compendiosam* rationem potissima quatuor
Evangeliorum argumenta memoriae mandandi tradit;’ and further,
somewhat humourously, thus remarks : * Fateor, in sola antiquitate et
raritate ponendum esse omne hujus libri pretium, cetera incompti,
barbari & horridi, immanemque illam squalem, quee ea setate linguas
bonasque artes obsedit, ubique referentis.’ &c. Ibid. Jungendres,
about ten years afterwards, noticed the same work—(‘ saepius quin-
quaginta Coronatorum precio aestimatum’—) referring to the ‘ full
description’ of it, by Schelhorn. Not. Charact. Libror. a Typog. Incunab.
&c. p. 7. But it is time to describe the volume in regular order.
The work consists of a number of rude wood-cuts (as the accom-
panying fac-simile demonstrates) illustrative of the principal events
recorded in the several Gospels. The original intention of this pub-
lication, as lias been before observed, was, to impress these events upon
the minds of young people. Opposite each cut, which has the cliap-
ters marked in Arabic numerals, there is a page of text, enumerating
tlie contents of each chapter, which is referred to, numerically, in tlie
cut. An examination of the fac-simile will best explain this.
It begins with the Gospel of St. John, which is illustrated by three
cuts, and three corresponding pages. As the Eagle is the symbol of
this Apostle, so all the events are inscribed upon this eagle, which is
made to stand upright. In like manner St. Matthew is illustrated
by five cuts of an Angel; and the accompanying fac-simile, with the
ensuing text, will give a pretty correct idea of the method observed
throughout the whole work.
* It probably might have fumished a hint, however crude, to some of those scriptural
illustrations of whicli Wolfius, in his Biblioth. Hebraiea, part ii. p. 247, gives a catalogue,
under the title of ‘ Introductiones in Scripturam Sacram Mnemonicae, ubi summa librorum
capitumve Biblicorum nunc per Cannina, nunc per Tabuias, nunc per Quaestiones et
Responsiones, nunc alia compendii via proponitur.’