St. Cecilia with Hymn Board (Nuremberg) ID Badge

St. Cecilia with Hymn Board is a modern colourized version of an antique woodcut from The Nuremberg Chronicle (Liber Chronicarum). Written by Hartmann Schedal, The Chronicle is an illustrated, encyclopaedic account of world history to the end of the 15th century (and beyond to the Last Judgment). Its content was derived from mythology, the Bible, and various Mediaeval Chronicles. It was published in the city of Nuremberg by Anton Koberger in July 1493 in Latin and, a few months later, in December, in vernacular German. The Chronicle is especially noteworthy for its unprecedented use of illustrations: 645 original woodcuts were produced for its publication. While many woodcuts were reused more than once in the text with the captions simply changed, nevertheless, the volume boasts 1089 pictures in toto. Some copies have contemporary hand-coloured illustrations. + In the original editions of The Chronicle, St. Cecilia's image faces left, a mistake by the artisan who cut the woodblock after the artist's original design. Thus, the text 'reads' backward. We have flipped the image so that St. Cecilia faces right and the writing on the Hymn board is correctly depicted even though illegible. + Despite her private vow of virginity, St. Cecilia was forced into an arranged marriage--never consummated--with a pagan named Valerian. It is said that on her wedding day, St. Cecilia “sang in her heart to the Lord” instead of revelling with her guests. As a result, long before she was associated with organs in art, an iconographical tradition that arose in Italy in the 14th century and was based perhaps on an erroneous reading of a line in her Passio, St. Cecilia was associated with singing and singers. Hence, this 15th-century German illustration gives her a hand-held Hymn board as an attribute. As here, such handheld boards originally bore the opening lines of a hymn that would be sung during a religious service. Today's freestanding or wall-hung Hymn boards are posted with numbers instead, numbers that coincide with a given congregation's hymnal. + Feast: November 22 + Image Credit (St. Cecilia with Hymn Board): This colourized version of the Nuremberg woodcut is a Saints_Aplenty Exclusive (SAE).