Passio Sancti Meynradi Facsimile Edition

The Passio Sancti Meynradi is a rare fifteenth-century block book devoted to the life, martyrdom, and enduring cult of Saint Meinrad of Einsiedeln. Produced around 1466, probably in southern Germany or Switzerland, the volume stands at the threshold between manuscript culture and the printed book. Its sequence of images and short German texts transforms sacred biography into an accessible visual narrative, guiding the reader from Meinrad’s religious vocation to the foundation story of one of medieval Europe’s most important pilgrimage centers.

The Making of a Sacred Landscape

Meinrad, a ninth-century monk and hermit, withdrew into the wooded region that later became associated with Einsiedeln Abbey. The narrative presents solitude not as withdrawal alone, but as the beginning of a sacred geography. Forest, hermitage, chapel, and monastic settlement gradually become signs of divine presence and communal memory.

Narrative in Woodcut

Unlike books printed with movable type, block books were produced from carved wooden blocks bearing both image and text. Here, boldly outlined figures, compact interiors, and simplified landscapes create a direct, episodic rhythm. The surviving version comprises dozens of printed panels, many enlivened with hand-applied color. Gesture and spatial arrangement carry much of the story, allowing each scene to function almost as a devotional tableau.

Martyrdom, Memory, and Pilgrimage

The murder of Meinrad by two robbers forms the emotional center of the cycle. Yet violence gives way to remembrance: the saint’s death confirms the sanctity of the place and prepares the symbolic foundation of Einsiedeln.

Between Image and Print

The book embodies a moment of profound technological change. Reproducible yet still individually colored, it preserves the intimacy of the handmade devotional object while anticipating the wider circulation of sacred stories through print.