The illustration opposite is the fac-simile, reduced in size, of the first page of the Canticles. The design is imperfectly explained by the legends in the engraving.
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Osculetur me osculo oris sui; quia meliora sunt ubrera tua bino. Veni in hortum meum, soror mea sponsa messui myrrham meum cum aromatibus meis. Caput tuum ut Carmelus; collum tuum sicut turris eburnea. Nigra sum, sed formosa, filfæ Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula cedar, sicut pelles Solomonis.
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Let him kiss me with the kisses of mouth, for thy love is better than wine. I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. Thine head is like Carmel; thy neck is like a tower of ivory. I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem; As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
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The agriculturists of the upper illustration are in monastic habits: some are cutting and threshing grain; one is pounding the grain in a mortar and another is grinding it in a hand mill. In the open little house before the monk with a pestle, is a desk with two books. In this combination of agricultural work with the emblem or suggestion of study, Harzen sees an illustration of the daily work of the Brethren of the Life-in-Common, to whom he attributes the engraving and printing of this book. The brethren of this order were eminent as students and copyists of books, and had some distinction in the last quarter of the fifteenth century as printers, but their connection with this book cannot be established.[1]
The words at the top of one of the cuts are not the only Dutch feature in the book: the style of design is that of the Netherlandish school of art. The blocks have been drawn and engraved with much more care than those, of the Apocalypse, or the Bible of the Poor, There is more of grace in the attitudes and draperies of the female figures of the Canticles, and less of that gross and unimaginative treatment of sacred personages which borders both on the ludicrous and the profane. But
- ↑ It is probable that the cowled farmers represent the lay brothers, then very numerous in nearly every thrifty monastery. The farmers, butchers, bakers, carpenters and useful mechanics were often permitted to wear the dress and share some of the privileges of the monks, on condition that they should do the servile work, and accept as a full reward the rich blessings of monastic prayers and masses.
