The Antichrist

The image of the Antichrist in human form, which is inspired and controlled by the devil, first became common during the 15th century at a time when the theme also began to emerge as an independent genre separate from the wider body of Apocalypse literature. This text written by an anonymous author ca. 1475 presents the legend of the life and works of the Antichrist as a parody of the life of Jesus and ends with the Fifteen Signs before Doomsday. It was bound together with the Meditationes by Juan de Torquemada and the Concordantia sive Ambidexterium by Giovanni Calderini and printed as a blockbook ca. 1480, probably in Strasbourg, but is presented here as a standalone work. Formerly owned by a Dominican monastery in Frankfurt am Main, it is the first typographical edition with woodcuts, of which only three specimens survive today. The text is adorned by 62 woodcuts including 7 full-page illustrations and 3 large decorative initials, two with vegetal motifs and one historiated initial depicting Christ resurrecting the dead.