This print touched the Tomb of Mary in Jerusalem. Unrecorded.
[Touch Relic] / [Jerusalem]. Abbildung des Glückseeligen Sterben der Allerselligsten Jungfrau M.A.R.I.A. Zu Jerusalem. In dem heiligsten Grab Christi Berg Calvaris. He: Grab der Mutter Gottes geweiht u. angerihrt. S.l. [German-speaking lands]: s.n., s.a. [18th century]. [14.5 x 11.4 cm], [1] f. etching. Trimmed inside platemark and touching etched border in places, mend on verso to centerfold, edge wear, minor staining and toning.
Unrecorded etching—depicting the Death of the Virgin & including a Marian prayer—which is extraordinary for including the claim that the etching traveled to Jerusalem and was physically touched to the Holy Tomb of Mary (“He: Grab der Mutter Gottes geweiht u[nd] angerihrt”). An image of the Jerusalem Cross is added to reinforce the association with the Holy Land.
The print is thus an example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ relic), i.e., an item that contacted or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item) or another holy item.
Touch-relic prints were made during the 18th-century for any number of religious sites & miraculous paintings/sculptures in Europe, and these prints sometimes survive today, but to find a print associated with the Holy Land is quite rare.
Did our etching actually travel to Jerusalem? An anecdote reported by Christian Jakob Wagenseil (1756-1839) (Versuch einer Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg ein Lesebuch für alle Stände, vol. 5 [1822], pp. 500-02) gives a glimpse into the active trade of such Holy Land touch relics in the 18th century. He writes, “In 1723, a vexed exchange of letters arose between a citizen of Augsburg, Jakob Franz de l’Ecluse, and the Franciscans, specifically a certain Father Kandidus Neimann or Nicht. The former himself traveled several times to the Holy Land to obtain relics and other so-called ‘holy wares’ in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and elsewhere, and to sell them to the people of Europe at a considerable profit. The bishops of Eichstätt, Augsburg, Constance, Freising, and others granted permission for this trade within their diocese, declaring the wares authentic, consecrated and touched to holy places [an heiligen Orten geweiht und angerührt]; the Franciscans in Augsburg praised their high value from the pulpit and bought them in large quantities to act as intermediaries. Since the matter was of considerable importance, the Franciscans in Turkey were the first to take notice, perhaps because they would have preferred to have the lucrative trade for themselves. They denounced l’Ecluse as a thief, murderer, and forger, and consequently, Rome forbade him from trading in consecrated & touched goods [geweiht- und angerührten Waaren]. Now the German Franciscans also cried out after the accused had defended himself in a printed work, and the aforementioned Father Neemann wrote against him. He presented the matter as if de l’Ecluse had claimed that his goods carried indulgences, which, however, was not the case. Now the goods fell into disuse. De l’Ecluse found himself abandoned by buyers, his prosperity threatened, poverty and misery at his doorstep, and despair drove him to take up writing against his opponents, for Neemann had even managed to seize several crates of such goods that de l’Ecluse had bought in Palestine, e.g. rosaries, supposedly consecrated [geweiht] at the tomb of Christ, roses of Jericho, crosses made of olive and other wood, etc., by claiming that these goods were stolen, and P. Cassian Grundler in Vienna even filed a complaint against de l’Ecluse, as if he had wanted to murder him in Augsburg, which, however, an official testimony declared untrue.”
OCLC and KVK locate no copies of this print.
*Christian Jakob Wagenseil, Versuch einer Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg ein Lesebuch für alle Stände, vol. 5 (1822), pp. 500-2.