Summary: A polemic in the form of thirteen pairs of woodcuts (with captions) depicting scenes from the life of Christ contrasted with scenes from the life of the Pope. The text for the Latin edition was by P. Melanchthon and J. Schwertfeger, while that for the German edition was by M. Luther. The text consists of quotations from the Gospels and the canon law. This collaborative effort between Lukas Cranach and Luther is among the more famous pieces of popular propaganda provided during the reformation. Luther wrote the German texts to accompany Cranach's woodcuts. Illustrating the differences between the life and actions of Christ and those of the pope. The Latin text was composed by P. Melanchthon and J. Schwertfeger.
Signatures: A-C4D2; [A] unsigned.
Illustrative and Decorative Content: itle within engraved, architectural, woodcut border dated 1521 and signed with the initials "F.B." The woodcuts (which have been attributed to Lucas Cranach and to Hans Cranach) derive in part from Luther's "An den christlichen Adel Deutscher Nation" (1521). Cf. Fleming, G. "On the origin of the 'Passional Christi and Antichristi' ..." in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1973) p. 351-368.
Additional Details: This volume was formally in the Beck Lutherana collection, #97 and in the W.H. Stifel collection, #146/683. At the foot of the title page is a manuscript note reading "gedr bey Mattha[us] Maler in Erfurt." There are manuscript marginalia in the text, and many of the illustrations are sparsely hand-colored.