Miniature engraved picture book of the Old Testament, bound in leather with silver mounts (pair with O.1966.GP.40.2)

Maker

(designer)
1665-1700

(engraver)
1665-1700

(engraver)
1688-1702

Title

Miniature engraved picture book of the Old Testament, bound in leather with silver mounts (pair with O.1966.GP.40.2)

Date of Production

(circa) 1690

Medium

medium : material : paper & leather & silver

Dimensions

Height: 5.7 cm
Width: 5 cm

Accession Number

O.1966.GP.40.1

Mode of Acquisition

Gambier Parry, bequest, 1966

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords


Label Text

The Küsel sisters, Christina and Magdalena, compressed Old and New Testaments into a total of 263 plates showing episodes from each book of the Bible. All the scenes are identified with a text in German, printed separately from the engraving. Miniature books were prized as beautiful objects, and these were probably targeted at the educated elite of Augsburg and elsewhere in Germany. The books were probably rebound at
a later date, but the silverwork on the covers is original.

In Augsburg and elsewhere in Germany, there was a huge demand for books and printed images for use in private contemplation. Prayer books and personal bibles were an important aspect of Lutheran spirituality, as they were used to reflect on the soul’s abject condition and support its renewal, drawing people closer to God. The Küsel sisters based many of their tiny engravings on their grandfather Matthaeus Merian’s famous Icones Biblicae series, published in Frankfurt in 1625. Each of their prints is about one sixth the size of Merian’s, so they had to focus on what was most pertinent thus also heightening their theological impact. By their scale, these books provided an intimacy appropriate to their function as an ‘intermediary’ (mittler in German) to aid spiritual growth.

Provenance

Information not yet known or updated

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