A later edition of Lutheran theologian David Chytraeus’ (1530-1600) marvellously illustrated commentary on the Apocalypse, along with Georg Aemilius’ (1517-69) Imaginum in Apocalypsis Johannis. Both works are illustrated from the same series of blocks, accomplished copies of H. S. Beham’s Apocalypse series, first printed in 1539 by Egenolph (Typi apocalypsi Ioannis depicti), and accompanied by Aemilius’ commentary*.*This is the third edition of Chytraeus’ work, after those also printed by Kraft in 1564 and 1571 and illustrated using the same wood blocks.
While the book of Revelation occupied an uncertain and much-debated place in the minds of the early Reformers, for David Chytraeus (1530-1600), student - and sometime houseguest - of Melanchthon and professor of theology at Rostock, the Apocalypse was ‘an illustration of Christ’s predictions in Matthew 24 and elsewhere in Scripture of the evils that would befall the church after His Ascension. It is both apostolic and especially important as being the sole book devoted to these evils. […] His commentary consists of the preface (dedicatory epistle), the argumentum (which includes the standard division of the book into seven visions), a list of the loci communes, a glossary, and the commentary proper’ (Backus, p.113-116). Drawn from the notes of his lectures at Rostock, where he was a lecturer in theology, Chytraeus offered the present work as ‘a way of congratulating the Swedish king on the peace of his kingdom, and on the excellent state of the “churches of Christ” which he found to be flourishing in Sweden’ (Backus, p.113).
Chytraeus is explicit in his calculations regarding when the Last Judgement might occur, a passage that a contemporary reader has engaged with and added to. The reader, writing in 1591 in territories now in the present-day Czech Republic, has added the calculations of Czech theologian and early Church reformer Jan Hus (1369-1415) in the margins, writing that by Hus’ calculations, the end of the world is due ‘soon’, with the vanquishing of the Antichrist before the Last Judgement supposedly occurring in 1590 - or, they add, perhaps 1613.
The woodcuts here, after Beham’s, illustrate key events of Revelation, beginning with John receiving visions, and moving through the seven seals; despite being of small scale, they are nonetheless impressively detailed and evocative. The events of the Apocalypse and the divine and demonic figures that populated it made it an especially popular portion of scripture to illustrate in visceral, vivid detail in both manuscript and print in the early modern period. Of the latter, editions of the blockbook Apocalypse, and Durer’s famous Apocalypse series, are perhaps the best known.
Paper browned, though the rough paper stock used for this printing would suggest the paper itself is brown, rather than having discoloured over time; per Dard Hunter, the water used in paper manufacture had considerable influence on its shade or tint: ‘in the wintertime, especially, it was difficult to clarify the water for use in the paper mills’ (Hunter, Papermaking, 224). Sporadic, slight blue fibres present in the paper here might indicate an attempt to offset this tone in order to lighten the paper.
Provenance: Near-contemporary exlibris inscription of Mathiej[?] Skocziles, or in Polish and Czech variants, Skoczylas/Skocilas, dated 1591 on recto of front free endpaper, with inscription beneath in same hand: ‘tum demum agnoscimus nostra. Quium ca que impotestate habimus, amisimus bona. Johanes Stigelius [Johann Stigel, 1515-1562, a German neo-Latin poet closely connected to Melanchthon] Non dolor est maior quam cum violentia mortis/unani solvit cordaligata fide’ [approximately: there is no greater pain than the violence of death breaking the bonds of faith]. Inscription at foot of title page of Daniel Zacharias Petrowaldensis, or Petrvald (in the present day Czech Republic), priest, indicating that the book was a donation by Skocziles on 22 January, 1591.
VD16 B 5269. I. Backus, Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse: Geneva, Zurich and Wittenberg (OUP, 2000).
OCLC: US: Minnesota, Penn, Harvard. UK: Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh.
