The Antichrist and the Fifteen Signs before DoomsdaySouthern Germany, soon after 1450Chiro-xylographic Blockbook, text in Littera bastarda Collection of Mr. Otto Schäfer, Schweinfurt (Germany)
Date of Publication of the Facsimile: 1970 This is a facsimile reproduction of a chiro-xylographic blockbook, that is, a book combining printed woodcut illustrations with manuscript text. This was one of the earliest methods for obtaining multiple copies of illustrated books. In this case, of course, the use of paper for the facsimile is completely appropriate. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly held that Antichrist (represented here with a little devil always lurking nearby) would come to make a last attempt at winning over mankind, just before the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. The text presented here is in Early New High German, based on the tenth-century treatise on Antichrist by Adso of Moutier-en-Der and on the account of the Fifteen Signs in the extremely popular thirteenth-century Legenda Aurea by Jacopus de Voragine, both originally in Latin.
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