Summary: Copenhagen's Dance of Death was printed between 1536 and 1558.
It must have been printed after Hans Vingaard came to Copenhagen in 1532(1) and before he died in 1559. After this it becomes very iffy:
Somebody has written the year 1536 on the cover, but the cover is not original and nobody knows who has written this year.
Meyer
has found a poem from 1538, that might
tell us who wrote Copenhagen's dance of death - and when.
At least it proves that Hans Vingaard owned the woodcuts from the dance of death
as early as 1538.
The pictures were used, not just in the three dance of death manuscripts, but also in many other contemporary books. Attempts have been made to compare these publications following the assumption that the badder picture indicates a worn down printing plate, which in turn indicates a newer book. On the other hand Meyer argues convincingly that this argument is no good, since the quality is much more dependent on the skills of the printer(2).
|
| The pope: God's substitute on Earth or a tool of the Devil? |
Meyer thinks, that the violent attacks on the catholic pope shows that it has been written during the Reformation - which fits with the year 1536.
It should be noted that 1536 might have been the most turbulent year in the history of Copenhagen and Denmark: Lübeck (of all towns !) had occupied eastern Denmark. Copenhagen was under siege by the future king Christian III and the citizens were dying from starvation. Copenhagen surrendered 29th July and the new king ushered in the Reformation and jailed the Catholic bishops.
Still, all these words and fury signify nothing since Hans Vingaard was printing Protestant works throughout his entire career - indeed, this might be the very reason why he came to Denmark in the first place. And even if the dance of death had been published long after the Reformation, the author might still carry a grudge for the pope.
And of course there is always the possibility that the existing copy is just a late reprint. Notice that Dødedantz was published 1634, i.e. 98 years after the Reformation, and still the publisher hasn't changed any of the contents.
In 1535 Hans Vingaard bought some printing materials from Chr. Petersen, but because of problems with payment he probably didn't have access to these materials before 1552. These materials then gave a fresh look to his books.
This argument (and other Hans Vingaard-data) are taken from Lauritz Nielsen's book, "Dansk Bibliografi" and his article in "Nordisk Tidskrift för Bok och Biblioteksväsen". Nielsen therefore fixes the year of publication between 1552 and 1558. The article is long and terse and in Danish so I have placed it along with a synopsis here.
(1) In spite of his name - which means "vineyard" in Danish - Hans Vingaard was German, born in Stuttgart. He came to the Danish town Viborg in 1528. The bulk of Hans Vingaard's work was reformatory propaganda (among other, works by Martin Luther and the Danish Reformer Hans Tausen).
(2) Francis Douce, The dance of Death, London 1833, p. 90: » One may, indeed, regret [...] the general carelessness of the old printers in their mode of taking off impressions from blocks of wood when introducing them into their books, and which is so very unequally practised that [....] the impressions are often clearer and more distinct in later than in preceding editions. «
Dansk 
Lübeck's dance of death
Manuscripts
How old is Copenhagen's Dance of Death?