Featured Illustrated Dutch Bible (1657-1646)

This is the latest addition to my collection. A so-called van Sichem Bible, after the illustrator. It was published by Pieter Jacobz Paets.

This bible is a Lovain Bible translation (1548). Jan Moerentorff printed in 1599 the next catholic standard bible. This bible has the same text, but many more illustrations (woodcuts). To my opinion this bible is still in a 16th century fashion. Typical for it's age is the use of a roman letter and a black letter (gothic script).

In total the bible has more than 1200(!) illustrations made by Christopher van Sichem, many of them after famous earlier illustrators like Albrecht Durer, Hans Holbein and Hubert Holtzius. Almost every woodcut is signed with the CVS mark.

It really puzzles me why this book was published in the Protestant part of the Low Countries at that moment. It would make much more sense if the book was published in the Catholic south (in Antwerpen or Brussels for example). The book is also attributed to the bishop of Antwerpen.

For a catholic bible it is very fancy. Illustrated Bibles were much more common in the Protestant tradition. I think this is the most beautiful catholic bible printed in the Low countries.

The book contains two parts, the Old (printed in 1657) and the New Testament (1646) and is bound in calf with copper clasps. The size is folio, so it is a big book.




The frontispiece






The start: Genesis











The start of the New Testament

 

Some more pictures to show how beautiful this book is.


Attributed to the bishop of Antwerpen



His coat of arms

 

It is stunning, E.L. And you're right, it looks more like a Protestant bible, with all those engravings. Maybe it is the influence of the Protestant north where he lived?

Pieter Paets, the publisher, was a Catholic himself. There were more Catholics in Amsterdam, and for quite some time they were allowed to be Catholic as long as they didn't openly show and practice their faith.
So Paets could print the bible in Amsterdam, but it is unlikely that he could have sold it in his own bookshop in Amsterdam. It was probably sold in the Catholic south, or through northern underground churches like "Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder" in Amsterdam.

 

That’s a very impressive and beautiful bible. Congratulations on owning it..

 

Unfortunately the book has no owner marks, but there are some small leads. In the back of the book there is some kind of broad-sheet added. In modern terms this is what we now call a cheat-sheet for your daily Catholic discussion. For the non-Dutch speakers an example:

24. Christ's body can be at the same time in different places

> Different references in the Bible


This is not standard to these bibles. It was printed in 1650 in Leuven (Louvain) in the southern part of the Low countries (now Belgium), by a publisher/printer called Samuel Masaeus (Maas?). I cannot find any info about this person.

This implicates your remark that is was used in the south.

 

Here is a digital copy of the book if someone wants to see all of the beautiful woodcuts.

https://books.google.at/books?id=_2WjxNUj7VMC

I dont think that catholic bibles have less illustrations than protestant ones, there are many french and italian prints of catholic bibles that are intensly illustrated, wheras for example lutheran bibles have no illustrations in the new testament exept for the apocalypse up until 1630.

 

For Catholic Bibles printed in more southern countries that is maybe the case, but for a Catholic bible printed in the Low Countries (Netherlands/Belgium) my example is quite rare.

I have another print bible in my collection (only the New Testament), that also contains about 100 woodcuts, but that one is much older (1558) and printed in Lyon (France).

 

Another hint to the former use of the book is one added illustration in the book of Saint Bernard (of Clairvaeux?). This could lead to the Cistercian order of monks.



The same page without the added woodcut in another copy of the book.

 

I really like to dive into a book and find more and more details, like this "monday morning"-page. Not only the page was folded during the print process, also the page number is wrong: must be 899. This gives a book character!

 

Amazing book-you are an enthusiastic biblio detective. I always imagine the Netherlands,Belgium and sections of Scandinavia as some of the most tolerant parts of the planet,but then I haven't done a deep google dive into those particular histories.
When we were there as american tourists,everyone was as accommodating as could be.

 

The history of these parts are quite complicated, even for the people who live there. Just like the Europeans sometimes mistakenly see the US as a whole, it is impossible to see Europe or even North-West Europe as a whole. I think my country (the Netherlands) was for some decades quite tolerant (1970's-2000's), but just as in the US there are forces who want to go back to a more traditional way of thinking.

The division into Catholic and Protestant is still an important part of the way we behave here, although most of the people call themselves atheists.

That is why I have such an interest in the 16th century, when this division started. With the invention of the book press in Europe, the information-flow between people changed radically. That took several centuries and many wars to settle.

We are living in a time that a similar change is taking place (from printed info to online info). It is, in my opinion, no wonder the world is quite confused now.

 

Yes, it is Bernard of Clairvaux. We usually see him portrayed as an abbot, but he was also depicted with the "Arma Christi" or instruments of Christ's passion, which is what you see here.

Interestingly he promoted reform of the RC church, and especially the monastic orders, from within.
Many others did too, Wyclif for instance, and even Luther wanted to stay in the church. As opposed to what we have come to know as the Protestants, for instance the Dutch Protestants, who wanted a new religious order outside of the RC church.
Philosophically there wasn't much difference between the later Catholics reformers and the Protestants, it was mainly the position of certain powerful leaders on both sides that led to a seemingly stark contrast.

 

Yes,it's Bernard of Clairvoyant-now i remember ! Annoyingly known to many from billions of TV programs as the founder of the Knights Templar.
Knew that name was familiar from 10 or 20 thousand pseudo-history documentaries & guys who wear Indiana Jones hats.

 

Absolutely true.

Here in the Netherlands two things came together.
As you say, the invention of the bookpress and spread of information, thoughts, ideas.
But also the formation of a new political union, based on earlier developments (inventions, philosophy, arts), and on a conflict with a stubborn, distant king. It was a political union of convenience and struggle against a mutual enemy.

Culture in the Netherlands is mostly defined by geological circumstances (moors etc) and geographical barriers. The most important barrier being the "big rivers", Rhine, Meuse, and others that flow alongside each other to the sea, dividing the country in a very distinct north and south.

The cultural isolation of certain other, very specific, regions is shown by the fact that there are so many different types of traditional dress. Differences which interestingly also find their origin in the 16th century.

 

I can imagine that an outsider ( like a Hindu, Inuit or other religion) looks at the 3 world religions (Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox etc.), Islam (Suni, Shia, etc ) and Judaism) and thinks: "It looks all the same to me" and they are right in my opinion. We are fighting over interpretations of old texts.

 

In the Low Countries' we saw incredible houseboat ('floating homes' we call them) communities on those rivers.Sounds like the Netherlands is a fairly harmonious place despite various cultural,religious and political ideas .
There was Nat Geo (?) show on some of the isolated areas-small villages on islands,amazingly rural and seemingly quite isolated (like commuting by boat).

 

That was probably Giethoorn, where just about every house is built on its own little island.
It is beautiful, thatched roofs, colourful flower gardens, and steep wooden bridges from island to island, high enough for small boats to pass under. Nowadays there are probably more Chinese tourists than Giethoorners, but that hasn't changed the people, who are still as independent as ever, except they've learned to speak some Chinese.

Interestingly Giethoorn also has a history of religion and isolation.
It was founded by religious refugees from southern Europe (Flagellants), who made a home for themselves in moorland that was so remote and isolated that their persecutors couldn't find them.
After them came several other religious groups who had to hide to suvive, the last being Jewish refugees who were given a home in the community. Anyone approaching Giethoorn could be spotted miles away, and every the time the Germans entered the village, the Jewish peoples had already been taken by boats to other islands.

 

The place Giethoorn is also called "Venice of the North", but there are a lot of places who claim that name...

It can be a little overcrowded with tourists once and a while.

 

A silly comparison really. I can understand Edinburgh being called the Athens of the north, as an important seat of learning. But to compare a charming yet humble village to what was once a world empire, filled to the brim with treasures from all over the Europe and Asia?

Best place to spot Chinese. Yet the tourists still like it, they don't mind having to wait for five minutes to pass a bridge.

If anyone ever visits Giethoorn, the houses are private homes, not an open air museum.
The same goes for the homes and windmills of Kinderdijk, and homes in other interesting places in the Netherlands. Those people like their privacy just as much as we all do. (I am so glad I live in a boring house.)

 

Giethoorn- Beautiful place,but if i lived there I'd want a tall fence in my backyard to camouflage us from the tourists .
We stayed in a beautiful little place in Harlem right next to the old Church (Kerk ?) where Frans Hals is buried.
The apartment was on the second floor above a shop and the stairs were as steep as a Mayan pyramids.From the second level living room,a spiral staircase led to the upper floor bedroom & one more set of steps led to the roof top patio.
It was a beautiful space that the owner said was built in 1555-quite magical.I wonder if 500 years ago the original inhabitants used ladders to get up into the loft ? Perhaps very steep stairs were not so uncommon in those days.