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Most important work of the mysterious and controversial Anabaptist David Joris

JORIS, David.
T'Wonder-boeck: waer in dat van der wereldt aen versloten gheopenbaert is. Wie een der ick (secht die Heere) senden sal, ontfangt in mynen naem, die ontfanght my: wie my ontfanght, ontfanght den die my ghesonden heeft. Hoochgelovet moet hy sijn, die als een ambassatoer ghesonden komt, inden name des Heeren. Opt nieuw ghecorrigeert unde vermeerdert by den autheur selve: int jaer 1551.

With a half-page woodcut of the Lamb of God in the first, and a full-page engraving of the bride of Christ in the third part signed by 'IRW' (=Hieronymus Wierix) (2 plates missing). Several woodcut illustrations in the text and interesting calligraphic woodcut initials.

No pl., no pr., 1551 (= Rotterdam, Dirck Mullem, ca. 1595?). 4 parts in one. Folio. Original full calf over wooden boards, ribbed spine, both sides richly blind tooled with three ornamental rolls, one of which with 4 portraits in roundels, leaving a central plain panel, two brass clasps. With a half-page woodcut of the Lamb of God in the first, and a full-page engraving of the bride of Christ in the third part signed by 'IRW' (=Hieronymus Wierix) (2 plates missing). Several woodcut illustrations in the text and interesting calligraphic woodcut initials. (9 (out of 10)), 125, (3); (5 (out of 6), 164, (2); (4), 50, (2); (2), 34, (2, including the last bl

Very rare page-for-page reprint of the second enlarged, revised and partly re-written '1551 edition' of the famous 'Wonderboek' (Book of miracles), one of the main works written by the well-known Dutch anabaptist David Joris, printed by Dirck Mullem at Rotterdam after the second edition which Mullem, on the instigation of the minister Herman Herberts from Dordrecht, had printed in 1584 at Vianen, the town were Mullem worked from 1583 to 1586 when he had been temporarily banished from Rotterdam and which town had already previously proved to be a safe place for clandestine printing. The first edition was printed in 1542-44 in Deventer by Theodorus II de Borne. David Joris (Bruges 1501 - Basel 1556) was a mysterious and controversial anabaptist who has had a major impact on the reformation in the 16th century in The Netherlands and Germany. After having fled to Friesland, he was baptized in 1633 and played a very important role in the history of anabaptism, strongly favouring the personal and pietistic experience of God and the Christian faith, gathering around him an influential group of faithful and fanatical adherents. Living in exile in Basel since the '40s, he continued more or less secretly to write and publish his treatises till he died in 1556. After it became known in Basel what kind of person Joris had been, and that he had predicted that he would resurrect within three years, his body was unearthed and still publicly burnt. The book, as printed in 1584, assumed a completely different appearance to the publication issued forty years previously. The German typefaces were replaced by Dutch ones, the obtrusive hands in the margins disappeared, and the three large woodcuts were replaced by engravings, two by Hieronymus Wierix. The present reprint of this '1551 edition' (actually printed in 1584), was published in ca. 1595 in which most of the same printing material is used. As Mullem also published other works written by Joris, it is clear that he became the most important printer of Joris's works after the prophet's death.

Good copy in a fine original and lavishly tooled leather binding.- (Some marginal waterstaining, first lvs. half loose).

Van der Linde 58; Typ. Bat. 5644; Bainton, David Joris, p. 71-3; Cat. Mtschp. Ned. Letterk. I, p. 168; Machiels J 236; Valkema Blouw, 'Printers to the 'arch-heretic' David Joris. Prolegomena to a bibliography of his works', in: Quaerendo, 21 (1991), p. 163-209, esp. 192-6; only three copies in the NCC.

Related Subjects: 16th Century Reformation Rotterdam

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