Leaf from Fasciculus mirre. Containing 26 lines in
Middle Dutch, this leaf measures 14 centimeters in length and 9 centimeters in width. Printed using
Gothic script by Roelant Bollaert in Delft, 1500.
Fasciculus mirre is a
Germanicdevotional book that was popular in the
Low Countries during the first half of the sixteenth century. The text contains meditations on the life of
Jesus Christ, most notably the
Passion.[1][2] Its
Latin title (meaning "a bundle of
myrrh" in
English)[3] comes from the first chapter of
Canticum Canticorum: "Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus meus mihi inter ubera mea commorabituris."[4]Fasciculus mirre is often sometimes spelled as Fasciculus myrre, or myrrhæ, and can also be referred to by an English title, On the Life of Christ.[5] The earliest known printed version dates to approximately 1500 CE in the
Dutch city of
Delft.[6]
Background
Fasciculus mirre was first compiled by an anonymous
Franciscan in the
German city of
Cologne, although the exact date of its original composition is unknown.[1] During a time when
Europe was on the eve of the
Protestant Reformation, the pocket-sized text was convenient for those who could carry it around with them everywhere, reading it throughout the day and embracing the spiritual power it was believed to have embodied.[7]
Map of the Low Countries, organized into the
Seventeen Provinces, five years prior to being inherited by the
Habsburgs.
Following the expansion of both
the printing press and the Reformation during the first half of the sixteenth century, various editions of the book were widely circulated throughout the
Low Countries while the region was under the control of
Charles V and the
Holy Roman Empire. Between 1518 and 1550, twenty separate editions of Fasciculus mirre were printed in the bustling,
mercantile hub of
Antwerp,[8] a city which was becoming an
epicenter of commercial printing as well as a popular safe-haven for non-Catholic religious movements such as
Calvinism and
Lutheranism.[9]
1572-78: Antwerp - Symon Cock voor Roelant Bollaert[40]
English Jesuit Version
In 1632-33, the book was translated into English by the
Jesuit priest
John Falconer. Falconer published it as Fasciculus myrrhæ. Or a briefe treatise of our Lord and Sauiours passion. Written by the R. Fa. I. F. of the Society of Iesus.[41]
^
abcdefPallarés Jiménez, Miguel Ángel. “Algunas Reflexiones Sobre El Inicio de la Tipografía en Zaragoza y Aragón: Cambios Pervivencias en la Transición del Códice al Impreso.” Universidad de Zaragoza (2002): 114.
http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/32/44/05pallares.pdf
^Roest, Bert. "Franscicans Between Observance and Reformation: The Low Countries (ca. 1400-1600)." Franciscan Studies 63 (2005): 429-31.
^
abPages from the Past: Original Leaves from Rare Books and Manuscripts. Portfolio Set I: History of the Written Word. Washington, D.C.: Foliophiles, 1964.
^Roest, Bert. "Franscicans Between Observance and Reformation: The Low Countries (ca. 1400-1600)." Franciscan Studies 63 (2005): 428-33.
^Matthijs de Lok. Review of Marnef, Guido, Antwerp in the Age of Reformation: Underground Protestantism in a Commercial Metropolis 1550-1577. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. January, 1998.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1619. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
Roest, Bert. "Franscicans Between Observance and Reformation: The Low Countries (ca. 1400-1600)." Franciscan Studies 63 (2005): 409-42.
Stock, Jan Van Der. Printing Images in Antwerp: The Introduction of Printmaking in a City: Fifteenth Century to 1585. Studies in Prints and Printmaking; v. 2. Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1998.
Vervliet, Hendrik D. L.Sixteenth Century Printing Types of the Low Countries. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1968.
Wijsman, Henri Willem, Kelders, Ann, and Sutch, Susie Speakman. Books in Transition at the Time of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries. Burgundica; 15. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010.
Leaf from Fasciculus mirre. Containing 26 lines in
Middle Dutch, this leaf measures 14 centimeters in length and 9 centimeters in width. Printed using
Gothic script by Roelant Bollaert in Delft, 1500.
Fasciculus mirre is a
Germanicdevotional book that was popular in the
Low Countries during the first half of the sixteenth century. The text contains meditations on the life of
Jesus Christ, most notably the
Passion.[1][2] Its
Latin title (meaning "a bundle of
myrrh" in
English)[3] comes from the first chapter of
Canticum Canticorum: "Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus meus mihi inter ubera mea commorabituris."[4]Fasciculus mirre is often sometimes spelled as Fasciculus myrre, or myrrhæ, and can also be referred to by an English title, On the Life of Christ.[5] The earliest known printed version dates to approximately 1500 CE in the
Dutch city of
Delft.[6]
Background
Fasciculus mirre was first compiled by an anonymous
Franciscan in the
German city of
Cologne, although the exact date of its original composition is unknown.[1] During a time when
Europe was on the eve of the
Protestant Reformation, the pocket-sized text was convenient for those who could carry it around with them everywhere, reading it throughout the day and embracing the spiritual power it was believed to have embodied.[7]
Map of the Low Countries, organized into the
Seventeen Provinces, five years prior to being inherited by the
Habsburgs.
Following the expansion of both
the printing press and the Reformation during the first half of the sixteenth century, various editions of the book were widely circulated throughout the
Low Countries while the region was under the control of
Charles V and the
Holy Roman Empire. Between 1518 and 1550, twenty separate editions of Fasciculus mirre were printed in the bustling,
mercantile hub of
Antwerp,[8] a city which was becoming an
epicenter of commercial printing as well as a popular safe-haven for non-Catholic religious movements such as
Calvinism and
Lutheranism.[9]
1572-78: Antwerp - Symon Cock voor Roelant Bollaert[40]
English Jesuit Version
In 1632-33, the book was translated into English by the
Jesuit priest
John Falconer. Falconer published it as Fasciculus myrrhæ. Or a briefe treatise of our Lord and Sauiours passion. Written by the R. Fa. I. F. of the Society of Iesus.[41]
^
abcdefPallarés Jiménez, Miguel Ángel. “Algunas Reflexiones Sobre El Inicio de la Tipografía en Zaragoza y Aragón: Cambios Pervivencias en la Transición del Códice al Impreso.” Universidad de Zaragoza (2002): 114.
http://ifc.dpz.es/recursos/publicaciones/32/44/05pallares.pdf
^Roest, Bert. "Franscicans Between Observance and Reformation: The Low Countries (ca. 1400-1600)." Franciscan Studies 63 (2005): 429-31.
^
abPages from the Past: Original Leaves from Rare Books and Manuscripts. Portfolio Set I: History of the Written Word. Washington, D.C.: Foliophiles, 1964.
^Roest, Bert. "Franscicans Between Observance and Reformation: The Low Countries (ca. 1400-1600)." Franciscan Studies 63 (2005): 428-33.
^Matthijs de Lok. Review of Marnef, Guido, Antwerp in the Age of Reformation: Underground Protestantism in a Commercial Metropolis 1550-1577. H-Urban, H-Net Reviews. January, 1998.
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=1619. Retrieved May 17, 2016.
Roest, Bert. "Franscicans Between Observance and Reformation: The Low Countries (ca. 1400-1600)." Franciscan Studies 63 (2005): 409-42.
Stock, Jan Van Der. Printing Images in Antwerp: The Introduction of Printmaking in a City: Fifteenth Century to 1585. Studies in Prints and Printmaking; v. 2. Rotterdam: Sound & Vision Interactive, 1998.
Vervliet, Hendrik D. L.Sixteenth Century Printing Types of the Low Countries. Amsterdam: Menno Hertzberger, 1968.
Wijsman, Henri Willem, Kelders, Ann, and Sutch, Susie Speakman. Books in Transition at the Time of Philip the Fair: Manuscripts and Printed Books in the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century Low Countries. Burgundica; 15. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010.