[Rarebooks] fs: 18th Century Anti-Semitic Festival Book

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

Venerable Histoire du Tres-Saint Sacrement de Miracle...
[with]
Second Suite de la Venerable Histoire du Tres-Saint Sacrement de Miracle...

Cafmeyer, Petrus de. [& G. de Doncker]
Bruxelles; Chez George de Backer: 1720 & 1735.

A pair of festival books devoted to the 350th Anniversary Procession of the 
Blessed Sacrament at the church of Saint Gudule in Brussels (the procession 
continues to this day, celebrated the first Sunday after July 15th). Saint 
Gudule is a noteworthy architectural and artistic achievement- the 
foundations of the church were laid down in 1220 and the original version 
was completed in 1273, with building going on (as is the way with large 
churches) into the 1650s. It is considered one of the finest remaining 
specimens of the pointed Gothic style. The building has many celebrated 
stained glass windows, some dating from the 13th-15th centuries, and 
several celebrated fixtures, including an oak pulpit showing Adam and Eve 
being expelled from Eden. It also contains the Chapel of the Blessed 
Sacrament with more celebrated stained glass. The chapel, which returns us 
to the main focus of our story, was built between 1540 and 1547, donated to 
the church by several Catholic kings and queens in honor of the Miraculous 
Hosts preserved in St. Gudule since 1370.

In a classic example of 14th century anti-Semitic propaganda, it is told 
that on Good Friday in 1370 several Jews stole a group of consecrated hosts 
from the tabernacle of the church of St. Catherine and took them to their 
synagogue where they (the hosts, that is) began to bleed miraculously. 
Shortly after that their kidnappers began to bleed as they were 
apprehended, the hosts recovered, and several of the "hostnappers" burned 
at the stake. The recovered hosts were divided between Saint Gudule and 
Notre-Dame de La Chapelle, the latter hosts disappearing in 1579.

The use of Jews as the villains in this saga may have been an attempt on 
the part of the City fathers to divert popular attention from other 
pressing problems. Duke Wenceslaus had been piling up debt for some time 
and was thought to be "in the pocket" of wealthy patricians. Popular 
discontent on a range of issues was fermenting almost to the boiling point, 
and the city was on the verge of revolution; it is entirely possible that 
the "hosts incident" was a handy way of turning popular attention away from 
more vexing problems. In any case, the 350th Anniversary Festival was 
certainly held at a time the city of Brussels needed some cheering up -much 
of the town had been bombarded and burned in 1695.

The volume begins with a handsome dedication page and 3 full-page plates, 
with baroque frames, showing scenes from the endowment of the chapel. This 
is followed by a description of the theft, recovery and veneration of the 
hosts, illustrated by full-page plates by J. Harrewyn after seventeen 
paintings by J. van Helmont. One of the baroquely-surrealistic plates shows 
the thieves frantically stabbing the bleeding host wafers with daggers, and 
another shows three of the culprits being burned at the stake. The text 
then fully describes the two processions held in 1720, the first on the 
14th and the second on the 28th of July, complete with illustrations of the 
triumphal arches, statues, and a fountain endowed by the Festival's 
principal patrons, and a large and dramatic folding woodcut plate showing 
the banner-bedecked wall of memorial arches.

This section of plates is followed by the second part, with a separate 
title page, depicting and describing the events of the Festival of 1735. In 
addition, the large folding frontispiece depicts the elaborate altar of the 
chapel. This is a wonderful festival book with much material for the 
architectural historian.  Reasonably scarce- OCLC locates 7 copies of the 
1720 edition and only 1 copy of the 1735 edition.

Click here to see our illustrated description of this book -
                           <http://www.joslinhall.com/g-30175.htm>

9.5"x14.5", title page, [6], [2], 46, 70 pages plus 40 engraved plates, 4 
of them folding; + title page, 52 pages, plus 12 engraved single page and 1 
engraved folding plate. Internally the blank endpapers are not present; 
there is some wear and soil throughout, although not an objectionable 
amount. there is a very small abrasion to the folding frontispiece, and one 
of the plates is bound lower than the others so that the bottom portion of 
the decorated border has been trimmed off by the binder; there is a slight 
"slice" along the border of one plate; there is an archival repair to the 
edge of the title page and another to the far edge of the large folding 
plate. Bound in old flame-patterned paper with a mottled sheepskin spine; 
the spine is quite worn and chipped, and the front cover is, at this 
moment, attached by a single binding cord (subject to change). The rear 
cover is attached tightly. There is some wear to the boards. [30175] $1200.00


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