Micro-Writing Manuscript image of the Miraculous Cross of Ferdinand II.
[Manuscript] / [Micrography] / Joseph Pohl. Crucifixus Ferdinandi III. Gebett, O Jesus von Nazareth ein König der Juden der Sieg und Triumph… Signed from “St. Veit,” “Scripsit Josephus Pohl,” on 26 October 1762. [15.5 x 11.6 cm], [1] f. drawing and manuscript calligraphy on laid paper. Mend on verso to centerfold, remnants of mounting on verso, minor staining and toning.
Unusual micrographic-calligraphic drawing/manuscript signed by a certain Josephus Pohl, who dated the item from “St. Veit” (either the town in Austria or, more likely, the Cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague) on 26 October 1762.
Depicted at the left of the slip is a crucifix labeled “Crucifixus Ferdinandi III,” which should instead read “Ferdinandi II”: Circulating in the 18th century were engravings of the miraculous crucifix that spoke to and encouraged Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II in Vienna in 1619 during the Bohemian Revolt at the onset of the Thirty Years’ War. The crucifix subsequently was kept in the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna and became an enduring symbol of Catholic perseverance.
Swirling around the drawing of the Crucifix is micrographic German prayer to the Cross.
At the right of the slip is a calligraphic German prayer to Christ as protector of the Cross.
I am unaware of other such works by a Josephus or a Joseph Pohl. The artist of this work is perhaps the same Joseph Pohl (1711-86) who was a native of Prague and a Jesuit who wrote the dissertation Tentamen Physico-Experimentale In Principiis Peripateticis Fundatum Super Phaenomenis Electricitatis (1747) and the six-volume Manuductio ad historiam ecclesiasticam (1753-9). A Josephus Pohl, likely the same man, is also listed as being typographer (“Praef. Typograph.”) at the Jesuit Collegio St. Clement in Prague in 1757 (T. Raisky, Catalogus personarum et officiorum provinciae Bohemiae Societatis Jesu An[no] M.DCC.LVII, col. xxi).