The Mechel Brothers

The front page of the 1796-edition. For details, click here and here.

The book includes the child, which neither Merian nor Büchel have.

One of the first people to describe Basel's dance of death was Huldreich Frölich, who in 1588 published the book: »Zwen Todentäntz: Deren der eine zu Bern […] Der Ander aber zu Basel«.

This book was confusing from day one. The texts were from Basel's and Bern's dances of death (along with a Latin translation of Basel's dance of death). With a few exceptions however, the illustrations were neither from Basel nor Bern, but were (bad) copies of Holbein's dance of death.

In 1715 Johann Conrad von Mechel III took ownership of the woodcuts, rearranged the material, dropped the Latin text and much of the Bern-text, and produced a new frontispiece (see picture to the left) along with a few woodcuts that actually represented Basel's danse of death. Mechel then gave his book the exact same title as Merians book: »Der Todten-Tantz, wie derselbe in der weitberühmten Stadt Basel, als ein Spiegel menschlicher Beschaffenheit …«.

The book sold well and was reprinted in 1724, 1735, 1740, 1769, 1786 and 1796, first by Mechel himself, then by his widow, and then by the couple's children Johann Conrad and Johann Jacob. In the 1800es the book was re-issued as a lithographic reprint. With their Holbein-pictures the Mechel family thus cemented the confusion that Frölich had founded - i.e. that Holbein should be the creator of Basel's dance of death.

In spite of Mechel's massive editing the book is still a mess: As already mentioned most of the woodcuts are from Holbein's dance of death, and they are discussed on the page about Holbein and Georg Scharffenberg.

The book starts with the preacher, who with Holbein is just another dancer in the row, but who is now pulled out of the dance.

In Basel the ossuary was adorned with a depiction of Judgment day.
(fragment of the original mural)

Then comes a picture of Judgment Day. This scene does not appear in Basel, so therefore Mechel has retained the text from Bern's dance of death. One might wonder why this scene has been placed here in the beginning of the book, when it marks the end of both Holbein's and Bern's dances, but this may be because Basel had a Judgment Day scene over the ossuary (picture to the right), which might even had been Holbeins original inspiration.

Then come the individual dancers, where the text is from Basel, while the pictures are the usual mix of bad Holbein-copies and free fantasy. The copy of Holbein's noblewoman, is used for both the duke and the duchess so we get Death's speech to the duke (but not his answer), and the duchess' reply to Death (but we're not told what she's replying to).

This is a copy of Holbein's nun but the musician has been placed out on the street, which means that the picture can be used for illustrating "the young man". There isn't a nun in Basel's dance of death anyway.

The juror is illustrated with a copy of Holbein's canon instead of Holbein's own juror, which seems to have disappeared. On the other hand, Basel's canon is illustrated with a copy of Holbein's priest.

Copy of Holbein. The gambler does not appear in neither Basel nor Bern.

The hermit is illustrated by Holbein's old man, while the young man is the musician from Holbein's nun, who has been placed out on the street.

The lack of images means that the ossuary and persons like knight, cripple, herald and executioner have disappeared. On the other hand, we meet Holbein's drunkard, gambler and robber, who neither belong to Basel nor Bern, which has apparently made it necessary Frölich to invent his own text.

At the end of the dance come Adam & Eve and a text that is the introduction from Bern's dance of death: »Von des Teuffels vergifften Zung, hat der Tod sein Ursprung […]« and at the very end a picture of the Expulsion from Paradise with more of the introduction from Bern: »Eva ist vast schuldig dran, Sie gab den Tod auch ihrem mann«.

The result is confusing to say the least, both concerning contents and title. One can't help wondering if the Mechel family were related to another publisher in Basel named Mechel at the same time, namely Christian Mechel, who created confusion with his "genuine" Holbein-drawings.