Book

Passional Christi und Antichristi is an anti-papist pamphlet printed in May 1521 (Whitford, 2008). The pamphlet aimed to educate people of the time about Jesus Chrirst and Proterirstant ideologies. The pamphlets showcase 13 pairs of woodcuts created by artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, and contrasted the Pope with Christ, depicting the Pope as the anti-Christ - a corrupt figure with selfish desires (The British Library, 2016). Each pair of woodcuts had a corresponding description underneath. Martin Luther, a German religious reformer born in Germany wrote the German descriptions for the pamphlets. Lucas Cranach was a personal friend of Martin Luther, as well an accomplished painter,  artist, and engraver (Buck, 2011).  Cranach and Luther collaborated to design the pamphlet, with Cranach creating the pairs of woodcuts (Whitford, 2008). A typical pamphlet of the time was usually about 8 inches by 6 inches, and of 16 pages or less in length (Bagchi, 2016). The pamphlet would have been sewn, with the title page serving as the cover page (Bagchi, 2016). By the early sixteenth century, the writing style was typically ‘gothic type’, and pamphlets in German used different dialects, according to the region of the author (bagchi, 2016). Cranach helped create a distinct style of printed works that was prevalent in Wittenberg, Germany, where he served at Wittenberg’s court Printer (Pettegree, 2017). Cranarch ran his own printing press and was heavily involved in the printing industry, which allowed for Cranach and Luther to work to develop a distinct branding for Luther’s work. Cranarch remodeled Wittenberg printed books by using a title page frame made from a woodcut (Pettegree, 2017). Luther’s printed books now consisted of this woodcut title frame, along with Luther’s name and place of origin, making his work instantly recognizable (Pettegree, 2017).  In Passional Christi und Antichrist the illustrations created by Canarch can be seen, with the coinciding German descriptions under the illustrations written in the ‘gothic’ writing style of the time.