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Canticum Canticorum

Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)

Netherlands — ca. 1465

The Song of Songs as a passionate allegory for divine love: the touching love story of the Song of Solomon in a sophisticated picture blockbook full of little insights into everyday life in the Late Middle Ages

  1. The Canticum Canticorum, better known today as the Song of Songs, was interpreted in both Judaism and Christianity as an allegory of divine love

  2. In Christian tradition, the praised bridegroom represents Christ and the betrothed bride represents a faithful soul or the Christian church

  3. This blockbook tells the allegorical love story in 32 woodcuts, which also reveal charming details of late medieval life

Canticum Canticorum

PML 21990 The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
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  1. Description
  2. Detail Picture
  3. Single Page
  4. Facsimile Editions (1)
Description
Canticum Canticorum

The rapturous, passionate, tender, and sometimes erotic rhymes of the Song of Songs in the Tanakh or Old Testament have served as an allegory of divine love since ancient times. In the Christian tradition, it was given the Latin title Canticum canticorum – Song of Songs – which this wonderful blockbook also bears. Entirely composed of woodcuts, the codex tells the allegorical love story of the Song of Solomon in a total of 32 half-page scenes, captivating the viewer with their elaborate detail and, at the same time, providing a fascinating insight into the late medieval world in which the biblical poetry is set. The text surrounds the figures in the form of artistically curved scrolls and is part of the fascinating images. The precious copy in the Morgan Library & Museum belongs to the first edition of this fascinating testimony to late medieval piety, which was printed in the Netherlands around 1465.

Codicology

Alternative Titles
Song of Solomon
Song of Songs
Lied der Lieder
Hohelied Salomos
Hoheslied
Size / Format
32 pages / 28.5 × 21.5 cm
Date
ca. 1465
Style
Gothic
Language
Latin
Script
Gothic Textura
Illustrations
32 woodcuts
Content
16 pages, each with two half-page woodcuts on the Christian allegory of divine love
Available facsimile editions:
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
#1 Canticum Canticorum. Het blokboek Canticum Canticorum als grapisch kunstwerk. Het blokboek Canticum Canticorum als godsdienstig kunstwerk.
De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – Antwerp, 1949
Limited Edition: 300 copies
Detail Picture

Canticum Canticorum

Union of Lovers

In the final chapter of the Song of Songs, the bride leads her bridegroom into her mother’s house. There she rests in his lap—now completely at peace as they are finally united: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me!” (Song of Songs 8:3) Her entourage waits outside, having been urged not to “stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (Song of Songs 8:4). In the background is a rugged landscape with stags, alluding to the last verse of the Song of Songs: “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.” (Song of Songs 8:14)

Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Single Page

Canticum Canticorum

Praise and Longing

Chapter 4 of the Song of Songs is a passionate praise of the beloved, who appears in the miniatures of this Christian block book as Ecclesia—that is, as the personification of the Church. The upper miniature depicts her with her retinue, the daughters of Jerusalem, and her bridegroom, Christ, in an enclosed garden planted with fruit-bearing trees. The lover extols her enthusiastically as such a garden, or “hortus conclusus”: “A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all ichoicest fruits […]. ” (Song of Songs 4:12–13)

In the next chapter, the perspective shifts as the bridegroom visits his beloved’s chamber at night: “A sound! My beloved is knocking […]. I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone.” (Song of Songs 5:2–6) The miniature depicts precisely that moment of sensual tension just before the longed-for union, which is then, however, disappointed.

Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Facsimile Editions

#1 Canticum Canticorum. Het blokboek Canticum Canticorum als grapisch kunstwerk. Het blokboek Canticum Canticorum als godsdienstig kunstwerk.

De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – Antwerp, 1949
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA)
Canticum Canticorum – De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – PML 21990 – The Morgan Library & Museum (New York, USA) Copyright Photos: Ziereis Facsimiles

Publisher: De Nederlandsche Boekhandel – Antwerp, 1949
Limited Edition: 300 copies
Binding: Facsimile and two commentary volumes in a slipcase
Commentary: 2 volumes by Dr. M. Meertens and A.J.J. Delen
Language: Dutch
Complete color reproduction of the original “Canticum Canticorum” at its original size. The facsimile aims to reproduce the original’s appearance, feel and physical characteristics as faithfully as possible. The pages are trimmed to the original format. The binding may differ from the original’s present-day binding. Facsimile printed on handmade, old Dutch paper.
Facsimile Copy Available!
Price Category: €
(under 1,000€)
Inquire current price here or ask a different question
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