The Great Flemish Engraved Gospel Cycle of the Sixteenth Century, in Four Exceptional Copies

NATALIS (NADAL), Hieronymus (1507–1580). Evangelicae Historiae Imagines. Ex ordine Evangeliorum, quæ toto anno in Missæ sacrificio recitantur, in ordinem temporis vitæ Christi digestæ. Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], [1591–]1593 and 1596. Four copies, including the first edition of 1593 and three copies of the 1596 title issue, two accompanied by Nadal’s Adnotationes et Meditationes (1595) and one by Agostino Vivaldi’s Meditationi (1599).

The most important Flemish engraved biblical cycle of the sixteenth century, presented in four individually bound copies of extraordinary artistic, historical, and bibliophilic interest.

One of the great monuments of Counter-Reformation printmaking, the Evangelicae Historiae Imagines comprises 153 engraved scenes from the life of Christ, executed principally by the Wierix brothers after designs associated with Bernardino Passaro and Marten de Vos. The series became one of the most influential visual interpretations of the New Testament, carried by Jesuit missionaries across the world and particularly influential in China and South America, where its compositions continued to shape Christian imagery into the nineteenth century.

The four copies represent successive stages in the publication and reception of the work. The first preserves the original illustrated edition of 1593 in a contemporary English red morocco binding. The second and third incorporate Nadal’s extensive theological commentaries, one in seventeenth-century German pigskin with remarkable historical provenance, the other in magnificent nineteenth-century green morocco by Léon Gruel. The fourth combines the engravings with the Italian meditations of the Jesuit Agostino Vivaldi.

Together, they illustrate the extraordinary afterlife of a book conceived at the very beginnings of the Society of Jesus.

I. The First Edition of 1593, in Contemporary English Red Morocco

Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], [1591–]1593.

Engraved title, 4 leaves, 2 blank leaves. With 153 engraved plates, 2 engraved ornamental borders, and 4 woodcut initials.

Folio (342 × 235 mm).

Contemporary English red morocco over five raised bands, the bands outlined in gilt. Spine compartments richly decorated with floral gilt tools. Covers enclosed within gilt frames, with large oval central medallions composed of orientalising interlaced strapwork over hatched gilt grounds and elaborate floral cornerpieces. Gilt board edges and gauffered gilt edges throughout.

The original illustrated edition of 1593, preserved in a remarkable contemporary English binding and distinguished by the exceptional quality of its impressions.

The complete series of 153 engraved plates survives in brilliant impressions of extraordinary sharpness and tonal subtlety. This copy belongs to the second state of the engravings, in which the names of the designers have been erased, while both Roman and Arabic numbering remain.

The binding is of particular importance. Its richly gilt floral ornament and striking orientalising central medallions represent an unusual and highly accomplished example of late sixteenth-century English decorative bookbinding. The possibility that its eastern-inspired ornament reflects the far-reaching missionary interests of the Jesuit order is an intriguing one, although no direct connection can be established.

Provenance: Stephanus Lipovniczky von Lipovnók (d. 1885), Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Esztergom and Bishop of Großwardein, with his engraved armorial bookplate on the front pastedown.

Condition: Binding rubbed, with small spots and indentations; corners somewhat bumped. Endpapers with glue shadows and minor worm traces. Leaf margins occasionally slightly foxed or finger-soiled; some preliminary leaves with a backed wormtrack at the gutter.

Previously described in Illumination und Illustration, Catalogue XX, no. 117, and Biblia Sacra, Catalogue XLVIII, no. 50.

II. The 1596 Engraved Edition with Nadal’s Meditations, in Seventeenth-Century German Pigskin

Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1596.

Evangelicae Historiae Imagines, bound with:

NATALIS, Hieronymus. Adnotationes et Meditationes in Evangelia quae in sacrosancto Missae Sacrificio toto Anno leguntur; cum Evangeliorum concordantia historiae integritati sufficienti. Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1595. Second edition.

Engraved title, 4 leaves, 1 blank leaf, followed by the engraved plates. With 153 engraved plates, 2 engraved ornamental borders, and 4 woodcut initials.

The accompanying commentary contains 6 almost full-page engraved vignettes, 51 engraved ornamental borders, 10 engraved initials, and 23 woodcut decorative initials, including numerous repetitions.

Folio (321 × approximately 226 mm).

Seventeenth-century blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, sewn on five raised bands outlined with fillets. The covers decorated with frames formed by ruled lines and two roll tools, the square central panels containing arabesque ornament with cornerpieces. Brass fittings for two clasps, the clasps now lacking.

This copy brings together the engraved Gospel cycle with Nadal’s substantial theological and meditative commentary, published in 1595. The engraved series was supplied with a new title dated 1596, while the accompanying commentary belongs to the second edition.

The copy is especially interesting for its seventeenth-century German binding and its documented ownership in Mainz.

Provenance: On the title, a crossed-out ownership inscription records Martin Mayer, parish priest of St. Christoph in Mainz, who acquired the book in May 1639. The inscription reads: “Martino Mayer Sti Christophoro Parocho Mog., qui me aere suo emit, et constringi curavit. Ao 1639 Maio Mense.”

This inscription establishes that Mayer purchased the book with his own money and had it bound, allowing the pigskin binding to be dated precisely and localized to Mainz.

The provenance also connects the volume with one of the formative sites of German Jesuit history. On 8 May 1543, Petrus Canisius, the first German member of the Society of Jesus, made his vows in the parish house of St. Christoph. The event left a profound impression on the religious character of the parish, a tradition still evident a century later in Mayer’s ownership of this important Jesuit work.

The title subsequently received the armorial stamp and signature of Baron Anselm Franz von Breidtbach zu Bürresheim (d. 1708), while an engraved armorial bookplate with the family arms appears on its verso.

Condition: Binding dust-soiled, spotted, and rubbed; clasps lacking. Thirteen leaves absent from the accompanying textual portion. Edges browned and occasionally foxed; title slightly altered. Plates with faint dampstaining and finger marks; some leaves with small tears and minor defects. Occasional pen trials.

III. The 1596 Engraved Edition with Nadal’s Meditations, in Magnificent Green Morocco by Léon Gruel

Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1596.

Evangelicae Historiae Imagines, bound with Nadal’s Adnotationes et Meditationes. Antwerp, Martinus Nutius, 1595.

A further copy of the same edition as the preceding example.

Engraved title, 4 leaves, 1 blank leaf, followed by the engraved plates. With 153 engraved plates, 2 engraved ornamental borders, and 4 woodcut initials.

The accompanying commentary contains 6 almost full-page engraved vignettes, 53 engraved ornamental borders, and 24 woodcut decorative initials, including numerous repetitions.

Folio (337 × 225 mm).

Magnificent nineteenth-century green morocco by Léon Gruel (1841–1923), signed “Gruel” at the foot of the spine.

The spine with raised bands framed by paired gilt fillets, enclosing gilt floral ornaments. The covers decorated with an elaborate framework of blind and gilt fillets, large floral cornerpieces and smaller fleurons. At the centre are oval medallions depicting the Crucifixion on the front cover and the Annunciation on the back, surrounded by rich floral ornament. Double gilt fillets along the board edges, further gilt decoration to the turn-ins, marbled endpapers, and gauffered gilt edges.

A particularly beautiful nineteenth-century bibliophilic interpretation of one of the great illustrated books of the Renaissance.

Léon Gruel was among the most accomplished French bookbinders and historians of bookbinding of his generation. A specialist in historical decorative styles, he created bindings that reflected a profound understanding of the artistic traditions of earlier centuries.

Here, his choice of subjects for the central medallions directly reflects the Gospel narrative of the book itself. The Annunciation and the Crucifixion frame the life of Christ, transforming the binding into an artistic extension of the engraved cycle within.

The volume is distinguished by the remarkable preservation of its contents and by the splendour of its binding. Apart from two removed blank leaves, the copy is described as possessing an almost untouched freshness of extraordinary quality.

IV. The 1596 Edition with Agostino Vivaldi’s Meditations, in Eighteenth-Century Calf

Antwerp, [Martinus Nutius], 1596.

Evangelicae Historiae Imagines, bound with:

VIVALDI, Agostino. Meditationi sopra li evangelii che tutto l’anno si leggono nella messa, & principali misterii della vita, & passione di Nostro Signore. Rome, Luigi Zannetti, 1599.

Engraved title, 4 leaves, 1 blank leaf. With 151 of the original 153 engraved plates, 2 engraved ornamental borders, and 4 woodcut initials. Plates numbered 130 and 131 are lacking.

Folio (327 × approximately 220 mm).

Eighteenth-century calf over five raised bands, with red gilt-lettered spine label. Spine compartments decorated with floral gilt ornaments and cornerpieces. Patterned paper endpapers, including a design inscribed “A Orleans chez Benoist Huquier No 170”, and red edges.

This fourth copy illustrates a further stage in the reception of Nadal’s engravings. The illustrated series, with the Antwerp title dated 1596, is bound together with the Italian meditations of the Jesuit Agostino Vivaldi, published in Rome in 1599.

Vivaldi’s meditations had first appeared in 1594, followed by further title issues in 1595. Their combination with the Flemish engravings demonstrates the adaptability of the illustrated Gospel, whose images could be read alongside different devotional and theological commentaries.

The illustrations thus continued to circulate as a visual foundation for meditation, while successive texts offered new ways of interpreting and contemplating the life of Christ.

Condition: Binding rubbed and scuffed, particularly at the foot of the spine, with minor wormholes and bumped corners. Endpapers defective; front pastedown torn. Title with an early ownership inscription at the foot; occasional finger-soiling, waterstaining, and minor tears and creases. Plates 130 and 131 are lacking.

The Jesus of the Jesuits: A Monument of Flemish Engraving

“C’est le monument de la gravure flamande de la fin du XVIe siècle.”

With these words, Maurice Funck characterized the extraordinary cycle of engravings conceived by Hieronymus Nadal, one of the most ambitious projects of early Jesuit art and publishing.

Nadal was among the closest associates of Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), whom he had already encountered during his student years in Paris. Reports of the missionary activities of Francis Xavier in India subsequently inspired him to travel to Rome and enter the Society of Jesus. He became instrumental in shaping the rules and institutional identity of the young order, founded its first Jesuit college at Messina, and undertook extensive journeys throughout Europe.

Together with Ignatius, Nadal conceived a comprehensive illustrated Gospel organized according to the chronology of Christ’s life, rather than simply following the order of the four evangelists.

The project proved extraordinarily demanding. Only after Nadal’s death in 1580 were the drawings, executed by the Roman painter Bernardino Passaro, ready for engraving. His successor, Jacobus Ximenes, assumed responsibility for publication and initially approached Christophe Plantin in Antwerp, who also acted as an intermediary between the Jesuits in Rome and the Wierix brothers.

Negotiations with Plantin and his workshop were difficult, however, and the project could not immediately proceed. Eventually the drawings were reworked by the Antwerp Mannerist painter Marten de Vos and engraved principally by Anton, Hieronymus, and Johan Wierix, assisted by Charles de Mallery, Jan Collaert, and Adriaen Collaert.

The resulting series ranks among the most extraordinary achievements of Renaissance engraving.

Across the 153 scenes, the New Testament unfolds in richly populated settings that reflect the architecture, dress, and visual imagination of late sixteenth-century Europe. Every plate rewards close examination: minute figures, distant landscapes, architectural perspectives, gestures, and narrative episodes combine to create extraordinarily complex compositions.

The series was initially published in Antwerp in 1593 without Nadal’s accompanying commentary. The theological Adnotationes et Meditationes followed in 1595, and the engraved series was subsequently issued with the title dated 1596. Further devotional texts, including those of Agostino Vivaldi, extended the work’s usefulness for spiritual instruction.

The images were conceived as instruments of meditation, inviting readers to place themselves imaginatively within the events of Christ’s life. They also became extraordinarily influential beyond Europe.

Jesuit missionaries carried the engravings throughout the world, particularly to China and South America, where the compositions became important models for Christian imagery. Their influence endured into the nineteenth century. Vivaldi’s meditations themselves continued to be reissued, including a further edition in 1839.

The four surviving copies presented here offer an exceptional perspective on that history. Their distinct textual configurations, bindings, and provenances document the circulation of the work across different centuries and cultural settings: from late Renaissance England and seventeenth-century Catholic Germany to the world of nineteenth-century French collectors.

Literature

Heribert Tenschert, Wunderkammer, Catalogue 90, vol. II, nos. 68a–d, pp. 692–701.

Tenschert, Illumination und Illustration, Catalogue XX, no. 117; Biblia Sacra, Catalogue XLVIII, no. 50.

Adams N 56, 57, and 55; BM STC Dutch 33 (not the 1593 edition); Brunet IV, 18; Cockx-Indestege et al., nos. 2192–2193 and 8786; De Backer/Sommervogel V, 1518; Ebert 14656; Funck, pp. 196 and 366f.; Graesse IV, 648; Thieme/Becker XXVI, 283.