1772 · Turin
by DAMNATION -
Turin: nella stamperia [Gerardo?] Giuliano, 1772. 12mo (151 x 85 mm). 180 pages. 26 half-page woodcuts printed from 23 blocks, of which 22 showing tormented souls in Hell and one a memento mori; five smaller woodcuts: title cut of St. Michael (printer's device?), St. Francis receiving the stigmata, the Trinity with spheres of the cosmos, a skull and crossbones, and the Crucifixion; a few type ornaments. (Lower corners of fols. B1 and B2 torn with loss to a few words on B2v; softened, some corners creased, light foxing.) 20th-century quarter parchment and block-printed paper covered boards (scrape to lower cover). Provenance: "Ex libris Sac. J. Henry," 20th-century inkstamp repeated twice on title. ***
A rare devotional work on the dangers of sin, illustrated with nightmarish, expressionistic woodcuts.
Showing silently screaming sinners contorting with pain in the flames and tortures of Hell, the woodcuts illustrate 24 "esclamaziones," most describing, in purple prose, different sins. Each "exclamation" is followed by an esempio - a monitory tale, and a final, brief paragraph containing the sinner's remorseful prayer for pardon. At the outset the unknown author paraphrases Augustine (Ep. 185, 21) to express the grim view that fear is the strongest incentive toward virtue ("Plus sunt quos corrigit timor, quam quos diligit Amor"). Faced with a hair-raising image of the ultimate punishment, the reader learns the perils of pride, lust, avarice, usury, vengefulness, gluttony, slander, cursing, sloth, ingratitude, gambling, dancing, expensive dress, ostentatious display, disrespect towards one's parents, obstinacy, impenitence, and despair. Duly terrified, he or she is prepared to learn more about Hell, eternity, Judgment Day, God's omnipotence, and even Paradise. Further lessons include a particular warning to "dishonest poets, painters, and comedians," a poetic litany of metaphors for mortal sin (an infinitely ugly monster, a drink that transforms men into beasts, poison proffered by the Devil in a golden cup, etc.), its effects on the soul and the body, and how to avoid it. Just when one thought it was over, more tales of the damned follow, including one of a female sinner, who "neglected to confess a mortal sin out of shame." The work concludes (finally) with lists of daily prayers and meditations.
A single wood engraver produced the 23 half-page blocks, 22 of which (repeated to 25) show horror-filled scenes of naked souls. He deployed his limited skills effectively, filling the frames with tireless parallel hatching and varying the positions of each writhing sinner, shown as if through a window into Hell. The iconography was evidently copied from one edition to another, to judge from the only digitized images of any edition that we could find, 2 pages from the undated Lucca: Marescondoli edition (ICCU ITICCUCFIE�28152). The memento mori cut on p. 72 includes xylographic text which was engraved backwards by the possibly illiterate engraver, who copied it directly from a different block. The smaller woodcuts, in different styles, were probably from the printer's stock.
OCLC and ICCU together list 16 editions of this popular text (most claiming, like this one, to be revised and expanded), the earliest from 1670, and the latest published in 1857. The majority were printed in the 18th century, in Bassano, Treviso, Brescia, Bologna and Lucca. It is obvious that the surviving editions, none of which are recorded in more than two copies (most in one copy only), reveal but the tip of the iceberg of a chillingly gripping bestseller. Only this edition, whose attributed dating by ICCU we have adopted, and another edition by the same printer, dated 1742, are from Turin. The present edition is the only one recorded with the word "chiamar[e]" instead of "richiamare" in the title.
Interestingly, the other Turin edition, which was presumably illustrated wtih the same primitive woodcuts, is held by the Bibliothèque Kandinsky in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a library dedicated to the study of modern art. The book fits right in.
ICCU ITICCUTO0E�35776, locating a copy of this edition at the Biblioteca provinciale di filosofia San Tommaso d'Aquino in Turin. The only American holdings are a copy of the Bologna 1675 edition at Yale Medical Library, and of the Treviso 1785 edition at Harvard. (Inventory #: 4375)
A rare devotional work on the dangers of sin, illustrated with nightmarish, expressionistic woodcuts.
Showing silently screaming sinners contorting with pain in the flames and tortures of Hell, the woodcuts illustrate 24 "esclamaziones," most describing, in purple prose, different sins. Each "exclamation" is followed by an esempio - a monitory tale, and a final, brief paragraph containing the sinner's remorseful prayer for pardon. At the outset the unknown author paraphrases Augustine (Ep. 185, 21) to express the grim view that fear is the strongest incentive toward virtue ("Plus sunt quos corrigit timor, quam quos diligit Amor"). Faced with a hair-raising image of the ultimate punishment, the reader learns the perils of pride, lust, avarice, usury, vengefulness, gluttony, slander, cursing, sloth, ingratitude, gambling, dancing, expensive dress, ostentatious display, disrespect towards one's parents, obstinacy, impenitence, and despair. Duly terrified, he or she is prepared to learn more about Hell, eternity, Judgment Day, God's omnipotence, and even Paradise. Further lessons include a particular warning to "dishonest poets, painters, and comedians," a poetic litany of metaphors for mortal sin (an infinitely ugly monster, a drink that transforms men into beasts, poison proffered by the Devil in a golden cup, etc.), its effects on the soul and the body, and how to avoid it. Just when one thought it was over, more tales of the damned follow, including one of a female sinner, who "neglected to confess a mortal sin out of shame." The work concludes (finally) with lists of daily prayers and meditations.
A single wood engraver produced the 23 half-page blocks, 22 of which (repeated to 25) show horror-filled scenes of naked souls. He deployed his limited skills effectively, filling the frames with tireless parallel hatching and varying the positions of each writhing sinner, shown as if through a window into Hell. The iconography was evidently copied from one edition to another, to judge from the only digitized images of any edition that we could find, 2 pages from the undated Lucca: Marescondoli edition (ICCU ITICCUCFIE�28152). The memento mori cut on p. 72 includes xylographic text which was engraved backwards by the possibly illiterate engraver, who copied it directly from a different block. The smaller woodcuts, in different styles, were probably from the printer's stock.
OCLC and ICCU together list 16 editions of this popular text (most claiming, like this one, to be revised and expanded), the earliest from 1670, and the latest published in 1857. The majority were printed in the 18th century, in Bassano, Treviso, Brescia, Bologna and Lucca. It is obvious that the surviving editions, none of which are recorded in more than two copies (most in one copy only), reveal but the tip of the iceberg of a chillingly gripping bestseller. Only this edition, whose attributed dating by ICCU we have adopted, and another edition by the same printer, dated 1742, are from Turin. The present edition is the only one recorded with the word "chiamar[e]" instead of "richiamare" in the title.
Interestingly, the other Turin edition, which was presumably illustrated wtih the same primitive woodcuts, is held by the Bibliothèque Kandinsky in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, a library dedicated to the study of modern art. The book fits right in.
ICCU ITICCUTO0E�35776, locating a copy of this edition at the Biblioteca provinciale di filosofia San Tommaso d'Aquino in Turin. The only American holdings are a copy of the Bologna 1675 edition at Yale Medical Library, and of the Treviso 1785 edition at Harvard. (Inventory #: 4375)
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