The nun appears only indirectly in the painting in St. Mary's Church where the maiden says to Death: »Had I become a nun then I would gladly step into your order«.
Click the small pictures to see the original pages.
The woodcut of the nun wasn't only used in the dances of death. The picture to the right is from another book by the Mohnkopf printery, Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe ("Revelations of Saint Birgitta"), 1496. The woodcut is supposed to portray "Sunte Katherina van watzsteyn" — i.e. Saint Catherine of Vadstena, the daughter of Birgitta.
At the bottom of the frame one can see the Mohnkopf printery's two characteristic escutcheons: three poppy fruits and a capital T with a cross.
Baethcke's transcription XLIII. DE KLOSTERNONNE. XLIV. DE DOT. |
Footnotes: (1) (2) (3)
Be awake, said our Lord, and be ready / […] for you know not the hour nor the day, where Christ will take your souls from you.
Matthew 24,36: "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." (also Mark 13,32).