Sigismund Evenius, Christian/Blessed Picture School (1636)
Abstract
Sigismund Evenius (c. 1587-1639) was a Protestant educator and teacher. His Christliche/Gottselige Bilderschule [Christian/Blessed Picture School] first appeared in 1636 in German; it was later translated into French (1666) and Italian (1673). The images in the richly illustrated book were intended to help children in catechism classes envision and thus internalize biblical stories. The featured pages illustrate the creation of the Earth and mankind, as related in the Book of Genesis, the first book of biblical scriptures in both Judaism and Christianity. The pages include short texts with biblical quotations along with captions that speak to the content of the images.
Source
On the Original State of Mankind [Excerpt from page 20]
The first picture of the story: On the first day
The second picture of the story: On the second day
The third picture of the story: On the third day
The fourth picture of the story: On the fourth day
The fifth picture of the story: On the fifth day
The sixth picture of the story: On the sixth day
Translation: Kathleen Dell’Orto
First Book of Moses, from 1, 2, 3. 4 and 5: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was desolate and empty, and darkness was upon the deep. And the spirit of God hovered above the waters, and God said: Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that the light was good. Then God divided the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
First Book of Moses, from 6, 7: God said: Let there be a firmament amid the waters and let there be a difference between the waters. Then God made the firmament and divided the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. Then the evening and the morning were the second day.
First Book of Moses, from 9, 10, 11: And God said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together at certain places so that dry land can be seen, and it was so. And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass and herbs, which seed themselves, and fruitful trees, each of which bears fruit according to its nature and has its own seed in itself on the earth, and it was so. Then the evening and the morning were the third day.
First Book of Moses, from 14, 16, 17, 18: And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, and it was so. And God made two great lights, a great light that rules the day, and a small light that rules the night, and the stars besides, etc. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven so that they shone upon the earth. And the day and night ruled, and divided light and darkness, and God saw that it was good. Then the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
First Book of Moses, from 20, 21, 22: And God said: Let the water be astir with living creatures and with birds that fly above the earth under the firmament of the heaven. And God created great whales and all sorts of creatures, and blessed them, saying: Be fruitful, etc., and God saw that it was good. Then the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
First Book of Moses, from 24 and 25: And God said: Let the earth bring forth living creatures, each according to its nature, cattle, worms, and creatures on the earth, each according to its nature, and it was so. And God made the creatures on the earth, each according to its nature, and the cattle, according to their nature, and all sorts of worms on the earth, according to their nature, and God saw that it was good.
Source: Sigismund Evenius, Christliche/Gottselige Bilderschule/ Das ist/ Anführung der Ersten Jugend zur Gottseligkeit in und durch Biblische Bilder/ aus und nach den Historien/ Sprüchen der Schrifft/ Einstimmung des Catechismi und nützlichen Gebrauch erkläret [...]. Jena, 1636. Available online at: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:urmel-af4170d6-2cb7-4192-83fd-acbcf8fb5d241-00002779-0017
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.
Further Reading
Ludolf Bremer, Sigismund Evenius (1585/89-1639): ein Pädagoge des 17. Jahrhunderts. Cologne: Böhlau, 2001.
Herbert von Hintzenstern, “Die ‘Bilderschule’ des Sigismund Evenius: zur Geschichte kirchlichen Schrifttums in Thüringen,” in Domine, dirige me in verbo tuo! Herr, leite mich nach Deinem Wort! Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Landesbischof D. Moritz Mitzenheim. Berlin, 1961, pp. 210-22.