I was told that the title of the book is PROSKYNETARION, which means "An Icon of Christ" or saint. I was also told that the book should have 108 pages with 52 plates or wood cut engravings and mine does. I believe this one was printed in the early 1800’s, possibly 1808. I have no idea of this because the date my book says is MDLXIII which of course is 1563 BUT that almost looks like it was added (hand stamped) later on. So please note that.

As you can see by the scans below, the cover is in VERY BAD condition and it has a hand stamped wallpaper type cover. The binding also looks like it is hand stitched. The first page shows an engraving of a king on a thrown and then the next page is the title page. I would say that these first two pages are in the worse shape compared to the rest of the book with some water damage and they are very worn around the edges and foxed. After that there are two pages (counting front and back) of some kind of "forward" and then the numbered pages start.

Some of the woodcut fold out into larger pictures and some are just the size of the page themselves. I was truly amazed at the beauty of each of them and I would say the condition varies with each. Most are folded correctly, about 3 or 4 of them have extra folds as if folded wrong when the book was closed. Then of course there is a good deal of foxing throughout. There are also about 4 text pages that have tears and/or pieces torn out of them. The pieces that are torn out are about 2" in diameter and not accounted for.

As far as I can tell by looking at the engravings, it seems to be a book all about the life of Christ. There are engravings of his birth, Bethlehem, Lazareth, The tomb, crucifixion, Kind David, the garden of Gethsemene, and so much more.

The book measures about 8 ¼" x 13" and is 1 ½" thick. A truly remarkable piece that deserves further research and some archival repair. Please keep the condition in mind when purchasing and BUY AS IS.