JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
The beautifully-named Gerardus de Zutphanis wrote de spiritualibus ascensionbus, a lovely gothic-lettered work of 84 leaves, in 1499, in the fifth decade passed the Gutenberg invention. It was published in Montserrat–in Catalonian Spain, some 4,000′ or so about the valley floor– by Joseph Luschner, in the mountain keep of the Benedictine abbey there.
The woodcut image reproduced here was used as a printer’s device, and in it, remarkably, are shown not only the abbey, as well as some others as indicated by the series of crucifixes, but the improbable figure of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child with both seemingly sawing their way through a mountain. Its a magnificent thing–I particularly enjoy the use of dots in shading the mountainsides.
The press–or the business, the publisher that is–that produced this work is still in business today.