DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.30697#0356
348
MISCELLANEOUS.
[Veldener.
711. Historia Sancm: Crucis. Belgice. Printed
hy Veldener. Culemherg. 1483. Quarto.
I may safely promise the curious reader no small amusement in the
description of the volurne before us. The materials are equally abun-
dant and interesting; and it will be my own fault if the mode of
putting them together be not. productive of information as well as of
entertainment. In this strange ‘ History of the Holy Cross,’ we
see a specimen of some of those numerous publications in the XVth
century, which, accompanied with a great number of cuts, rendered the
characters and events recorded in Sci’ipture, by degrees familiar to the
minds of youtli. We have here a small quarto, of only 33 leaves, upon
each of the pages of which a wood-cut and a stanza of Dutch poetry
are impressed: precisely similar, in form, to those publications which
are now put into the hands of young people. The antiquary, however,
views these rude specimens of ancient printing and engraving, with
very disferent sensations from those with which they were originally
considered; and we now treasure as a precious relic, that which was
formerly treated as a common toy.
This interesting and exceedingly scarce work has been notic^d by
both the Crevennas and by Heinecken. However copious and parti-
cular may be the descriptions of it in the Bibl. Crevenn. vol. i. p. 36,
edit, 1775* and vol. i. p. 45, edit. 1789—Idde Generale, &c. p. 461,
7icte—we may be yet more full and particular. The graphic embellish-
ments or fac-similes of the cuts, are peculiar to tlie present description.
Let us first trace the descent (if the language of genealogy may be here
applied) of the copy under consideration. Heinecken tells us, that he
saw this copy at Wilna, at Mr. Gockinga’s; who bought it at a sale at
the Hague, in 1768; where, with an edition of the Apocalypse, and bound
with tlie Speculum Salvationis, by tlie same printer, the articles were
deseribed as ‘ Disserent Histories of the Bible and other Subjects' It should
seem that Gockinga had the copy bound in its present manner; for Cre-
venna tells us, that lie ‘ came into tlie possession of it from Gockinga,
and that it is in good condition, and bound in red morocco, with gilt
upon the sides and back.’ At the sale of the Crevenna books, in 1789,
it was sold for only 60 ssorins ; and was afterwards in the collection of
the Marquis of Donegall, upon the sale of whose library it came to
MISCELLANEOUS.
[Veldener.
711. Historia Sancm: Crucis. Belgice. Printed
hy Veldener. Culemherg. 1483. Quarto.
I may safely promise the curious reader no small amusement in the
description of the volurne before us. The materials are equally abun-
dant and interesting; and it will be my own fault if the mode of
putting them together be not. productive of information as well as of
entertainment. In this strange ‘ History of the Holy Cross,’ we
see a specimen of some of those numerous publications in the XVth
century, which, accompanied with a great number of cuts, rendered the
characters and events recorded in Sci’ipture, by degrees familiar to the
minds of youtli. We have here a small quarto, of only 33 leaves, upon
each of the pages of which a wood-cut and a stanza of Dutch poetry
are impressed: precisely similar, in form, to those publications which
are now put into the hands of young people. The antiquary, however,
views these rude specimens of ancient printing and engraving, with
very disferent sensations from those with which they were originally
considered; and we now treasure as a precious relic, that which was
formerly treated as a common toy.
This interesting and exceedingly scarce work has been notic^d by
both the Crevennas and by Heinecken. However copious and parti-
cular may be the descriptions of it in the Bibl. Crevenn. vol. i. p. 36,
edit, 1775* and vol. i. p. 45, edit. 1789—Idde Generale, &c. p. 461,
7icte—we may be yet more full and particular. The graphic embellish-
ments or fac-similes of the cuts, are peculiar to tlie present description.
Let us first trace the descent (if the language of genealogy may be here
applied) of the copy under consideration. Heinecken tells us, that he
saw this copy at Wilna, at Mr. Gockinga’s; who bought it at a sale at
the Hague, in 1768; where, with an edition of the Apocalypse, and bound
with tlie Speculum Salvationis, by tlie same printer, the articles were
deseribed as ‘ Disserent Histories of the Bible and other Subjects' It should
seem that Gockinga had the copy bound in its present manner; for Cre-
venna tells us, that lie ‘ came into tlie possession of it from Gockinga,
and that it is in good condition, and bound in red morocco, with gilt
upon the sides and back.’ At the sale of the Crevenna books, in 1789,
it was sold for only 60 ssorins ; and was afterwards in the collection of
the Marquis of Donegall, upon the sale of whose library it came to