Rubricelle
As rubricelle ( Neo-Latin derivation of rubrica = red chalk , red colored earth ) one called the prayer book of the Catholics in the 19th century , because in this many letters were printed in red.
Through this naming from the Protestant side, however, they revealed their own ignorance of the traditional initials at the beginning of a chapter. In their own book printing tradition, the color design was deliberately omitted out of Calvinist austerity. However, this slightly defamatory term also had a real core: With a predominantly female readership in mind, the mainly southern German publishers had placed particular emphasis on the design of the works intended as edification literature .
The colored version, gold embossing , etchings , pages with gold edging , high-quality leather binding and the like made this form of “prayer booklet” into little treasures that their owners like to present as a status symbol before the service and in public .
The artistic observer of everyday rural life during the last third of the 19th century, Wilhelm Leibl , cites three examples of such “mass prayer books” in his painting “The Three Women in the Church”. In the copy closest to the viewer, the eponymous red letters can be seen on closer inspection.
See also
literature
- Lawrence A. Hoffman, Gerard Acht, Frieder Schulz, Peter Constantin Bloth: Prayer Books I. Judaism II. Middle Ages III. Reformation and modern times IV. Practical-theological . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 12 (1984), pp. 103-124