Jiří Melantrich (1563)
Knijha Erasma, 1563
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Knijha Erasma, 1564
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elantrich lived from ca. 1511 till 1580.
He was originally named Jiří Černý Roždalovický — i.e. Georg the black from Roždalovice.
As a member of the senate of Prague he was awarded the title "of Aventino", and he Latinized his name to Melantrich,
"the black-haired".
Melantrich published many books in Prague, among these a Bible and a herbarium,
but his dance of death is largely unknown and
may compete with Piccard's The Dead Dance for the title
as the most obscure dance of death. Those very few experts that have described this dance, have all commented on,
how unknown it is.
23017 — Knijha Erasma Roterodamskeho,
w kterez gednomu kazdemu
Krestianskemu Czloweku
naucenij y napomenutij se dawa,
yakby se k Smrti hotowiti mel.
(The book of Erasmus Rot., in
which instruction and admonition
is given to every Christian, how he
ought to prepare himself for death;
translated into Bohemian.) Prag,
Girijk Melantrych, 1563. 8°
The dance of death to be found prefixed
to this extremely scarce book consisting of
53 representations engraved on wood with
Bohemian verses in rhyme placed underneath,
has not been mentioned by any author
who has written on this subject. The
representations are copies of those to be
found in the editions which are furnished
with Scheyt's text.
(Friedrich Adolf Ebert, A General Bibliographical Dictionary, 1837, Vol. 4, pp. 1902-1903 )
Death attacks the soldier with a large bone
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The full title of the book is: "Knijha Erasma Roterodámského w kteréž gednomu každému Křestianskému
Cžlowěku naučenij y napomenutij se dáwá yakby se k Smrti hotowiti měl"
or: "A book by Erasmus of Rotterdam, in which every Christian may be taught and admonished about how he
should prepare for death".
We are in fact dealing with a Czech translation of Erasmus' "Liber de prćparatione ad Mortem".
In the above quote Ebert claims that the woodcuts are copies of
those (copies of) Holbein's Dance of Death
that Birckmann's heirs
published along with texts by Kaspar Scheit.
Ebert is mistaken here:
The 53 woodcuts are not copies of Birckmann's woodcuts.
The quickest way to see this is by noting that Death attacks the soldier with a bone (picture to the right)
and not with an oversize dart as on
Birckmann's woodcut
and on Birckmann's imitiators:
Hollar,
Deuchar
and
Valvasor.
Melantrich has probably copied Holbein's original woodcuts.
But Ebert might have a point anyway.
Birckmann's heirs issued many editions of Holbein's woodcuts, and some of these editions were
padded with Erasmus' "de prćparatione".
Thus Birckmann was the first to combine Erasmus' book with Holbein's woodcuts.
However, "de prćparatione" was never printed together with Kaspar Scheit's texts.
It was only the Latin editions (and only some of them) that contained "De Prćparatione",
while Kaspar Scheit's German texts only appeared in the High- and Low German editions.
The pope, without devils
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The Czech text was translated by judge Jan Popel z Lobkovic / Johann Popel von Lobkowitz,
who since 1547 had been in charge of the Bohemian censorship against Lutheran publications.
Maybe this explains why the two devils from
Holbein's pope
weren't copied (picture to the left),
while there is still a little devil at
the senator's
ear.
Maybe it was also out of respect for judge Lobkowitz
that the dead man attacking
the judge
does not wear an iron collar and chains?
Holbeins scene
could easily be interpreted as if the dead man was one of the (corrupt) judge's former victims.
As shown by the images at the top of this page, Knijha Erasma Roterodamskeho
was published in 1563 and 1564, i.e. a 100 years before another Czech,
Wenceslaus Hollar, published his copies of Holbein's dance of death.
Kniha Erasma Roterodámského was republished more than 200 years later, in 1786,
but this edition contains only "Liber de prćparatione ad Mortem" and no dance of death.
Resources and Links
- Knijha Erasma Roterodámského
(Click on the tab marked "Facsimile" to see the entire book).
Erasmus' book has been bound with two other books: A Czech comedy about Lazarus the beggar and
a translation of "Speculum sapientiae alias Quadripartitus apologeticus".
- Jiří Melantrich of Aventino (Wikipedia)
Melantrich 1563
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Melantrich 1564
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Other interpreters of Holbein's dance of death
Hollar was also from Czechia.
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Valvasor was from Ljubljana in Slovenia.
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Wagner was from Poland, but lived in Transylvania.
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Dances of death
Holbein's dance of death
Melantrich
