FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Apocalypse Then: Monsters, nightmares & portents from ‘Augsburg Book of Miraculous Signs’
01.05.2016
10:56 am
Topics:
Tags:
Apocalypse Then: Monsters, nightmares & portents from ‘Augsburg Book of Miraculous Signs’ Apocalypse Then: Monsters, nightmares & portents from ‘Augsburg Book of Miraculous Signs’

001seacreature1534.jpg
 
When Oliver Sacks was starting out on his career in neurology, he noted that many of his colleagues never seemed to read or make reference to any scientific papers more than five years old. Sacks found this strange, for as a teenager in England he had devoured numerous books on the history of chemistry and biology and even botany. However, to his fellow neurologists Sacks’ interest in the “historical and human dimension” of science was considered “archaic.” Undeterred, Sacks was convinced the historical narrative offered a better understanding of scientific investigation.

This became evident with his diagnosis of a patient who suffered incessant jerking movements of the head and limbs. With his knowledge of previous scientific investigations, Sacks was able to correctly identify the cause of the patient’s illness while at the same time confirm a theory put forward by two German pathologists—Hallervorden and Spatz—in 1922, which had almost been forgotten. This only further convinced Sacks of the great insights to be gleaned from having some historical understanding of science.

Something similar is going on here in the phantasmagorical Augsburg Book of Miraculous Signs from 1552—which presents a continuous religious narrative from Biblical stories through historical events, and assumed portents and signs right up to the 16th century—the era when Protestantism became the dominant Christian religion in England, Scotland, Germany and Switzerland.

Privately commissioned in the German town of Augsburg, this “miracle” book was published in “123 folios with 23 inserts, each page fully illuminated, one astonishing, delicious, supersaturated picture follows another.” While church reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin denounced Catholicism for its superstitious and idolatrous beliefs, the Augsburg Book of Miraculous Signs served to remind its Protestant readers of the hand of God working thru various strange and ominous events—earthquakes, plagues of locusts, weird beasts, monstrous births and unusual solar activity. Like many of his fellow reformers, Luther believed such portents signified The End of Days and the coming Apocalypse—a trope that continues to this day. 

But for the modern secular reader, these beautiful water colors and gouaches describe meteorological events—floods, hailstones, storms; seismic activity—the Lisbon earthquake; solar activity; and the cyclical path of comets; all of which—as Oliver Sacks understood—can give science its human and historical dimension.

M’colleague, Martin Schneider previously posted on this wondrous book, stating he wished he was able to read the descriptions accompanying the images. Well, this where possible I have now done or have described the scene illustrated. For those who would like to own their own copy, a facsimile edition of the Augsburg Book of Miraculous Signs has been published by Taschen and is available here.
 
006deluge.jpg
The great flood—in the center what maybe a representation of Noah’s ark.
 
0Esodogomodes.jpg
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
 
007mosesredsea.jpg
Moses parts the Red Sea.
 
0Amanaheav.jpg
Mana from Heaven rains down on Moses and the Israelites.
 
0Fmoseswhoisholy.jpg
 

When Moses heard it, he fell on his face, and he said to Korah and all his company, ‘In the morning the LORD will show who is his, and who is holy, and will bring him near to him. The one whom he chooses he will bring near to him. Do this: take censers, Korah and all his company; put fire in them and put incense on them before the LORD tomorrow, and the man whom the LORD chooses shall be the holy one. You have gone too far, sons of Levi!

 
0Dvisionsheaven.jpg
 

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

 
008miracles2drago.jpg
 

And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city.

 
0Bgoldenorb3roman73bcwar.jpg
 

In the land of the Romans in the year 73 B.C., a golden ball was seen in the sky, which then came down to the Earth and rolled about and flew back up into the air again, in the direction of the rising sun, so that its great size covered up the sun completely. This was followed by the great Roman war.

 
0Gdeathcaeser3sunsineast.jpg
 

On the day after the death of Julius Caesar, three suns appeared in the East in the early morning sky which then moved towards each other so that they merged into one. Also at that time, an ox on the outskirts of Rome asked a farmer why he was working so hard, since before very long there would be more of a shortage of people than of grain.

 
010comet21007.jpg
 

In the year 1007 A.D., a wondrous comet appeared. It gave off fire and flames in all directions. As it fell to Earth it was seen in Germany and Italy.

 
0C1009adbloodmoonsundarkburningtorchdeathgerital.jpg
 

In the year 1009 A.D., the sun went dark and the moon was seen all blood-red and a great earthquake struck and there fell from the sky with a loud and crashing noise a huge burning torch like a column or a tower. This was followed by the death of many people and famine throughout Germany and Italy. More people died than remained alive.

 
017threemoons.jpg
 

In the year 1174 A.D., three suns were seen in the west in the month of September, when the sun was about to set. And after two hours the outer two disappeared and the other one set after that.

 
001Bseacreature2B.jpg
A beast of the deep.
 
013beasttiber1496.jpg
Beast of the Tiber River 1496, stranded on a narrow stretch of land after a flood—the representation of a devil, part mammal, part reptile, both male and female—this beast came to represent the follies of the papacy—“the Papal Ass.”
 
009cometmiracles.jpg
 

In the year 1506, a comet appeared for several nights and turned its tail towards Spain. In this year, a lot of fruit grew and was completely destroyed by caterpillars or rats. This was followed by an earthquake in the eighth and ninth year in this country and in Italy, so great and violent that in Constantinople a great many buildings were knocked down and people perished.

 
003monsters.jpg
Two-headed, many limbed ‘monstrous birth,’ 1513.
 
005parheliavienna.jpg
Sun dogs (parhelia) seen over Vienna, 1530.
 
014plaguelocustspoland1527.jpg
A plague of locusts fall on Poland in 1527—believed to have been carried by winds from Turkey.
 
004whaleearthquakelisbon.jpg
 

In the year 1531, on the twenty-sixth and the twenty-eighth of January, bloody and fiery signs were seen at night in the sky in Lisbon in Portugal on the twenty-sixth day and then on the twenty-eighth a great whale was seen in the sky. This was followed by great earthquakes, so that about two hundred houses collapsed and more than a thousand people were killed

.
 
002miracles.jpg
 

In the year 1533, in October, flying dragons were seen in Bohemia and the Vogtland, as well as in the small area of Ascher [Aš, city in Czech Republic], a crest on their heads, a snout like a pig, and with two wings. This then lasted several days, such that more than four hundred of them flew together each day, both big and small, just as is painted here.

 
015celestialbattlethreechildrenaugsburg1536.jpg
Three celestial children fight in the sky over Augsburg 1536.
 
016fivesunsleipzig1551.jpg
Five suns shine over Leipzig in 1551.
 
012strangehaildordrecht1552.jpg
 

In 1552 A.D., on 17 May, such a terrible storm with hail descended on Dordrecht in Holland, so that the people thought the Day of Judgement was coming. And it lasted about half an hour. Several of the stones weighed up to a few pounds and 8 lot. And where they fell, the smell they gave off was terribly bad.

 
011wondrouswheatbeardedgrapes15471539.jpg
Strange grain and fruit: ‘Wondrous wheat and bearded grapes.’
 
Via Flashbak, Collector’s Weekly and NY Times.
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
01.05.2016
10:56 am
|
Discussion

 

 

comments powered by Disqus