The blockbook featured here is, at first view, a strange-looking one. It is filled with curious images, such as a three-headed bird with a lute (Figure 1) or a grinning winged lion with a cup on its head and holding a plate on which is a severed head (Figure 4), none of which appear at first glance to make much sense. However, there is method to the seeming madness. Once the symbolism contained in each illustration is understood, and what the actual purpose of the book was, it all makes sense.
Known as the Ars memorandi (“Art of Memory”), the book consists of 15 pages of text and 15 full-page illustrations. Each page was individually carved from a single block of wood (30 in total). A grey water-based ink was then applied to the surface of the block where the text or image had been carved out in reverse (the blank background having been cut away), paper was placed over the block, pressure was applied by rubbing to transfer the ink to the paper, and voilà! – a printed page. Two blocks were printed on each sheet of paper, with a page of text on the left side and its corresponding image on the right (Figure 2). The sheet was then folded in half so that the two sides faced each other. The process was repeated for all the blocks until enough sheets had been printed by the anonymous printer to form as many copies of the complete book as required.
Figure 2. Opening pages of Ars memorandi. Left: first page of text. Right: first image. JRL 9410, leaves 1 verso and 2 recto
The Ars memorandi was designed to aid the reader in remembering the Gospels of the New Testament in the Bible (i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) by means of metaphorical symbols. Each illustration depicts the symbol of one of the Four Evangelists: the Angel for Saint Matthew (Figure 3), the Lion for Saint Mark (Figure 4), the Ox for Saint Luke (Figure 5) and the Eagle for Saint John (Figure 1). The illustrations also include smaller symbols, figures and objects, which are allegorical representations of the people and events occurring in the Gospels. The book is a mnemonic device: a method for the reader to memorise the events of the life of Jesus Christ.
For example, in the very first illustration in the book (Figure 1), the strange three-headed bird is an eagle, the symbol of John the Evangelist. A dove is sitting on the head of the eagle and on either side are two additional heads, that of a younger man with brown hair and beard, and an older man with white hair and beard. These symbolise the Trinity: the older man is the Father, the younger man is the Son, the dove is the Holy Spirit. This part of the illustration represents the beginning of the Gospel of St. John (chapter 1, verses 1-34) in which Creation and the nature of the Trinity are described. The lute on the eagle’s chest symbolises the Wedding at Cana (because there’s always music at weddings!) and the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine (John 2:1-11). The bucket and crown underneath the eagle symbolise the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:4-42). On top of the eagle’s wing on the left side is a fish, which appears to symbolise the Pool of Bethesda (because fish live in pools?) and the miracle of Jesus healing a paralysed man (John 5:1-15). On top of the eagle’s wing on the right side are five loaves and two fish, symbolising the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 (John 6:1-14).
The images have contemporary hand-colouring in black, orange, pale brown, green, mauve, and grey, which was possibly applied using a stencil. The initial letter on each page is also hand-coloured in orange on a ground of pale brown. The colouring, it has to be said, has not been applied very skilfully.
The hard-to-read crudely-carved text on the pages facing the illustrations does provide the reader with an indication as to how to “read” the images. On a few pages, the blocks of text have a small dragon at the end of some lines. There doesn’t appear to be any particular reason for this, other than perhaps being space fillers for short lines or as an artistic flourish by the person who carved the block. In the example shown here (Figure 6), the dragons appear at the end of the lines indicating the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) and the miracle of the healing of the blind man (John 9:1-12).
Similar small dragons can be found in the first German blockbook edition of the Biblia pauperum, made in 1470 in the city of Nördlingen by the painter Friedrich Walther and the carpenter Hans Hurning (a digitisation of the copy in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek – Bavarian State Library – in Munich can be viewed here). Which, perhaps, provides a clue to a possible origin of this copy of the Ars memorandi. Like most blockbooks, it is totally anonymous: it doesn’t tell us where it was made, by whom, or when. Our best guess, based on watermark evidence in the paper on which it is printed, is that it was probably produced in Southern Germany (Bavaria?, possibly Nuremberg) sometime between 1465-1470.
This copy of the Ars memorandi was acquired sometime during the late 18th or early 19th century by George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834). Sadly, there is no evidence in the book itself of its history or how Spencer acquired it, though possibly he bought it from James Edwards (1756-1816), the London bookseller and collector who supplied Spencer with other blockbooks and incunabula. Spencer’s librarian the Rev. Thomas Frognall Dibdin stated in his catalogue of the earl’s books (Bibliotheca Spenceriana) that he had no hesitation in proclaiming it to be the oldest printed book in the library, dating it to sometime before the year 1430!
The Ars memorandi has been fully digitised here.
The Early European Print collection in Manchester Digital Collections contains digitisations of all the blockbooks in the John Rylands Library, plus other examples of our rich holdings of early European printing.
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