The Art of Memorising the Gospels

Southern Germany, c. 1470

First print of the first edition. An extremely rare blockbook.

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Blockbook. Woodblock print on paper, printed on one side of the sheet only.

287 x 201 mm. 30 leaves. With 15 full-page illustrations.

127

of 257

Ancient mnemotechnical compendium of the four Gospels

Overview

The Ars memorandi ('the art of memorizing') addresses young theologians of moderate education. It is intended to serve as a memory aid for the content of the four Gospels. Images and text are presented opposite one another so as to be mutually explicable. Mnemotechnical tools of this kind were especially popular with the Dominicans.

Both their richly illustrated contents and their production technique lend a special appeal to blockbooks: illustration and text are cut into a wood panel, which is then printed onto paper using the rubber-printing technique. The sheets were printed on one side only, then usually pasted together against their blank versos in order to make them look like 'real books,' as in the present copy.

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