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
