Fasciculus mirre

[1][2] Its Latin title (meaning "a bundle of myrrh" in English)[3] comes from the first chapter of Canticum Canticorum: "Fasciculus Myrrhae dilectus meus mihi inter ubera mea commorabituris.

[6] Fasciculus mirre was first compiled by an anonymous Franciscan in the German city of Cologne, although the exact date of its original composition is unknown.

[1] During a time when Europe was on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, the pocket-sized text was convenient for those who could carry it around with them everywhere, reading it throughout the day and embracing the spiritual power it was believed to have embodied.

[7] Following the expansion of both the printing press and the Reformation during the first half of the sixteenth century, various editions of the book were widely circulated throughout the Low Countries while the region was under the control of Charles V and the Holy Roman Empire.

Fully intact copies are extremely rare, but can be found through the Universal Short Title Catalogue database[permanent dead link‍].

Leaf from Fasciculus mirre . Containing 26 lines in Middle Dutch , this leaf measures 14 centimeters in length and 9 centimeters in width. Printed using Gothic script by Roelant Bollaert in Delft, 1500.
Map of the Low Countries, organized into the Seventeen Provinces , five years prior to being inherited by the Habsburgs .