Note 117 — XI

These devices give us no certain clue to the engraver or printer of the book, but they are of value in assisting us to ascertain the purpose for which the book was made. There are no old manuscript copies of the book, but there are many evidences that it was designed and produced for the first time in the fifteenth century. It would seem that this pictorial version of the Canticles was designed, not so much to illustrate the prefiguration of the Virgin Mary, as the termination of a great schism which had divided the Catholic church between the years 1378 and 1449. [anc218] Christendom had been scandalized by the rule of two, and, for a short period, of three rival popes. It was believed that this schism in the church would have been closed by the action of the Council of Constance, which terminated in 1418; but this result was not accomplished until 1449, when Nicholas V became the only pope. The designer of the pictures has treated the return of Christendom to the rule of one pope as the reconciliation of Christ with the church. To give special significance to the subject, he has introduced the armorial shields of the magnates at the councils. It may be that the engravings were made in 1420, but it could be maintained with plausibility that they were made after the dissolution of the Council of Basle in 1448.