Copenhagen's Dance of Death, Part 38

En endelig b[e]slutning Och     en formaning til alle. Christelige venner, i haffue nu seet det som er for eder teet

Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe

Click the little picture to the left to see the original page.

This illustration is also from the Mohnkopf printery in Lübeck — Hans Vingaard has reused a picture of the Holy Birgitta / Bridget of Sweden. The picture to the right is from Sunte Birgitten Openbaringe from 1496, where the woodcut was used five times. The extra frame contains the Mohnkopf printery's two characteristic escutcheons: three poppy fruits and a capital T with a cross.

This is all that has survived of the 1550 edition of Copenhagen's Dance of Death: After the dance of death proper the page ends with two lines of "A final summary and admonition for all". The alert reader will recall these words from the beginning, which proves that this line was not the beginning of the dance, but rather the title of the last section, and thus the last line of the table of contents.

The 1634 edition, Dødedantz, contains 8 more pages of this admonition, but truth to tell this is too boring to translate, so if you're really curious you'll have to go to the Danish version of this page.

Dances of death Lübeck Books Copenhagen's Dance of Death Part 38