Heidelberg's blockbook
The child: "Now I must dance and can't yet walk."
|
In the university library of Heidelberg there's an old book from 1455-1458, which is really 7 little block books that have been bound into one.
One of these 7 booklets is considered the world's oldest printed dance of death.
We know that the text is older still. It's the so-called Oberdeutscher vierzeiliger Totentanz,
as we find in a manuscript from 1443-1447,
and more fully developed in the dance of death in Basel from ca. 1440.
In contrast to the old manuscript from 1443-1447, Death has now been assigned
a speech for each dancer.
Originally the text was simply a long series of complaints by dying people from all stations of society.
In later versions, like the book that we're examining here,
Death invites each participant to the dance,
and the monologues have ostensibly been turned into dialogues.
The pictures are only printed on one side of the paper, but later the pages have been pasted together two by two.
It was probably at this time that the order was altered,
for the dancers do not come in the same sequence as in the other versions:
The order has been exchanged between
patriarch,
archbishop and
cardinal,
between
bishop and
duke,
between
knight and
abbot,
between
cook,
peasant and
beggar, and
between
mother and
child.
The mother's speech:
»Oh child, I would have saved you«
is clearly a reply to
the child's wail:
»Oh my dear mother. […] How can you leave me now?«.
The first preacher is located at the back of the dance (but I have moved him up in front).
The pious nun follows confidently along.
|
An apothecary is added to the 24 regular dancers.
|
An
apothecary
has joined the 24 regular dancers from Der Oberdeutscher vierzeiliger Totentanz.
This probably also happened in connection with the binding of the book. Whether or not this is the case, some experts believe
that the image of the pharmacist is a later addition.
The last half of the scenes have (laterally inversed) numbers. This has not been done consistently for there are no numbers 14-15,
while "16" is printed twice on the same woodcut.
The numbers are:
lawyer (13),
nobleman (16),
noblewoman (17),
merchant (18),
nun (19),
cook (21),
peasant (22),
beggar (20),
mother (24) and
child (23).
These numbers would be correct if the pages were in the ordinary sequence - and without the apothecary.
Nobody would accuse this book of being great art, but remember that this is a
block book, which means that the entire page — both text and pictures — has been cut from the same matrix.
So please send a kind thought to the artist: Not only has he had to cut the letters mirror-inverted,
but woodcuts are relief prints, which means that the artist has had to cut away all the wood between the letters.
Notice that Death is polite and addresses most people in the plural:
ir, euch, ewr
(like Middle English ȝe, eow, eower(1) and
Medieval English ye, yow, youre),
except for the
cook,
peasant,
beggar and
child,
where Death uses
the more free and easy form and says du, dich, deyn
(like in medieval English thou, thee and thine).
This peculiarity is not reflected in my translation.
Click the images to read the dialogue
Pope
|
Emperor
|
Empress
|
King
|
Cardinal
|
Patriarch
|
Archbishop
|
Duke
|
Bishop
|
Count
|
Abbot
|
Knight
|
Lawyer
|
Canon
|
Physician
|
Nobleman
|
Noblewoman
|
Merchant
|
Apothecary
|
|
Nun
|
Beggar
|
Cook
|
Peasant
|
Child
|
|
Mother
|
Links and Resources
- Very good quality scans of the book are to be found at the Heidelberg University's site
- The pictures are available digitally cleaned at
WikiMedia
- The text can be accessed here:
Heidelberg's Block-book
- Der tanzende Tod by Gert Kaiser, pages 276-329.
A short introduction, a reproduktion of the dance (in black and white) and a (modern) German translation.
Further information
Footnotes:
(1)
Dansk 
Dances of death
Heidelberg
