Looking at the outside of this book you can guess what might be inside. The black leather binding is made from goat skin, which is tough and durable. It looks like the entrance to a classical temple with steps leading to an obelisk with an urn on top, and there are other decorative features such as skulls and crossed bones. All these elements remind us of a cemetery and of death. Pierre-Jean Bradel bound this book and decorated its covers with gold leaf. It is a luxurious binding for a rich client and it introduces the reader to the "Dance of Death".

The "Dance of Death" is a series of 43 prints after Matthäus Merian (1593-1650). Each one shows Death as a decaying body or skeleton, sometimes male, sometimes female, which approaches a man or a woman, seizes them by the hand or the arm and leads them away; the pope, a bishop, the queen, a duke, a farmer - all are easily recognisable by their dress and other objects that are shown in the image.

 

The pope wears his triple crown and carries the three-barred cross. Each image is accompanied by verses in German, with a French translation on the opposite page. In the four lines above the image, Death addresses his "victim" and announces that "his time has come".

 

These prints served as a reminder that everyone has to die, irrespective of social class, gender, age or profession, and as such they were very popular, appearing in many different editions.