Hooghweerdighe Historie Van Het Alder-Heylighste Sacrament Van Mirakel

Brussels: Georgius De Backer [Vol. II: Aegidius Stryckwant, Carolus De Vos, Joannes Baptista De Vos, Nicolaus Stryckwant], 1720-35., 1720. 2 Volumes in 1 (Vol. I in 3 Parts, the 2nd & 3rd with continuous pagination). folio. pp. 6 p.l., 48; 1 p.l. (divisional title), 46, [1 leaf] (divisional title), 49-70; 3 p.l., 64. 3 woodcut plates (1 folding & 1 double-page) & 50 engraved plates (4 folding; 26 with woodcut borders), by Jacobus Harrewijn & Jan Lodewyk Krafft after I.B.Thibaut, &c. woodcut title vignettes. a few woodcut text illus. woodcut ornaments & initials. contemporary calf, rebacked with gilt compartments laid down (some light foxing & browning, fold tear in 1 plate repaired with very slight loss, another plate with short marginal tear repaired). First Editions in Dutch (also published with French text). Issued to commemorate the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the 'Holy Sacrament of Miracles' in the city of Brussels; the second volume contains details regarding the jubilee of 1735. According to the legend, in 1370 on Good Friday, a number of consecrated hosts were stolen from the tabernacle of the church of St. Catherine by several Jews, who took them to their synagogue. There the Hosts were desecrated, and miraculously began to bleed. The thieves were found out and punished by being burned alive at the stake. Each year, on the Sunday after July 15, a procession is held in the city to perpetuate the memory of the miracle, and the identical Hosts are exhibited in the church of St. Michel and St. Gudule for the veneration of the faithful. Cafmeyer's text contains a total of three woodcut and fifty engraved plates. Twenty-six of these portray religious subjects and scenes from the miracle and the commemorative celebrations within woodcut borders incorporating symbols and armorial bearings of catholic bishops and abbots of the Brabant. Most of the other plates depict triumphal arches, surmounted with similar pictorial representations. There is also a folding double-page plate of the altar in the church of St. Michel and St. Gudule, with border-scenes from the miracle. cfBrunet 22339.. Hardcover.