Ein kurtze form das Paternoster zu verstan und zu bette[n] für die iungen Kinder im Christen glauben

by Martin Luther

Basel: Adam Petri, 1519

[12] p. | 4to | k^4 | 196 x 149 mm

One of the earliest editions of Luther's first work intended expressly for children, published the same year as the first, and the first edition published outside Germany. This Short Form to Understand and Pray the Paternoster for Christian Children is a drastically simplified version of his slightly earlier German Interpretation of the Lord's Prayer for Simple Laymen, itself a revised version of the Interpretation and Explanation of the Holy Lord's Prayer. Luther's student Johann Agricola prepared the latter, based on his sermons, and published it without his approval in early 1519. While the German Interpretation and Short Form share a common framework, and both provide Luther's interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, they sought to satisfy different audiences—much as Luther's Large Catechism and Small Catechism taught the fundamentals of the new faith at different levels. While enterprising clergy and parents could well have instructed children with the German Interpretation, as they long had with any number of religious texts, its title and brief preface make no particular appeal to them. But here at a fraction of its size—12 pages, an early example of the iconic Reformation Flugschrift format, compared to the German Interpretation's 72 pages—this Short Form makes its audience perfectly plain in the running title: Das Vatter unser für die Kinder. ¶ This is an early Luther Flugschrift by any measure, published before his writing took its polemical turn, before he publicly burned the Exsurge Domine bull that threatened his excommunication. More than that, it marks a turning-point in religious literature. "One of the important results of the Reformation," Miriam Chrisman writes, "was the advent of books for children. Catholics and Protestants had both recognized the necessity of teaching their faith to the youngest. Both wrote books destined for children or for parents to read with their children." Chrisman remarks that the first such book printed in Strasbourg was an edition of the Short Form, Martin Flach's 1520 edition, "destined for young children." Luther's Small Catechism shortly eclipsed slight works like this as the vital religious text for his young faithful, but the educative spirit behind the Catechism, as well as some of its basic elements, are found here years earlier. ¶ None of this is to suggest that children themselves were curling up with this little pamphlet, though it must have happened on occasion. Rather, it was perhaps more likely that parents, or even local clergy, read it to, or with, the young ones in their care. Caregivers were expected to help their wards memorize Protestant catechisms, for example, with mothers especially tasked with this work. It was all part of a grand strategy. "The leaders of the young Reformation movement were aware that its success depended not least upon whether they would be able to convey to congregations, and especially to young people, a coherent knowledge of the evangelical faith that would consist of more than superficial and fragmentary information" (Brecht). They should be familiar with the sacraments, they should know the Ten Commandments, and of course they should know the Lord's Prayer. ¶ To be sure, the Lord's Prayer was among Luther's earliest priorities, the origins of his interpretation dating as early as 1516. After his German Interpretation and Short Form, it went on to become a cornerstone of his Catechism. "It is clear from Luther's early interpretations of the Lord's Prayer and the central place he accorded it in his devotional writings of the period that followed that he held it in very high regard," at one point calling it "the highest and noblest prayer under the sun" (Mikoteit). ¶ Whatever Luther wrote, the Basel printer Adam Petri—the first to print his Ninety-five Theses in pamphlet format—did much to spread the work of his Protestant circle. With his city largely focused on the production of learned Latin texts, Petri “was able to corner the local market in evangelical works” (Pettegree). As children's books often did, this particular title became quite popular. VD16 reports at least eighteen editions through 1522. ¶ This is the earliest edition we’ve found in auction records. Indeed, we find just one other sale record, a 1520 edition at Bloomsbury in 2006. WorldCat reports just one copy of this edition in North America (Princeton).

CONDITION: Modern sprinkled boards. Title within a four-piece decorative border, and three large decorative initials. Don't be alarmed by the unexpected k signatures. All is as it should be, according to both Benzing/Claus and the copy digitized at Munich's Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. ¶ Marginal soiling and dampstaining, and the title a bit dusty and finger-soiled; some margins trimmed close, just barely avoiding text. A remarkable survival.

REFERENCES: USTC 643767; VD16 L5353; Josef Benzing and Helmut Claus, Lutherbibliographie (1989), v. 1, p. 66, #543 ¶ Miriam Chrisman (Jacques Poujol, tr.), "Polémique, bibles, doctrine: L'édition protestante à Strasbourg 1519-1599," Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire du Protestantisme français 130 (Jul/Aug/Sep 1984), p. 342 (cited above; "As the Reformation evolved, the most important books for children became the catechisms and the books preparing boys and girls for their First Communion. We can never stress enough the importance of books for children. As religious positions hardened, it became more and more important for Protestants of all denominations, as for Catholics, to ensure the religious purity of the faithful and to preserve their unity."); Miriam Usher Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599 (1982), p. 167 (“Children’s books were a new departure in lay devotionals. These were compiled for children or for parents to use with their children. The earliest of these books was Luther’s exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, published in 1520"; Chrisman provides no citation here, but we suspect she refers to the Short Form rather than the German Interpretation, as it's undeniably the more juvenile of the two versions, and given her reference elsewhere to Flach's 1520 edition; her date in any case is erroneous); Martin Brecht (James L. Schaaf, tr.), Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation (1990), p. 273 (cited above); Matthias Mikoteit, "Martin Luther and the Lord's Prayer," Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion (2017; online), throughout (good summary of his publications bearing on the Lord's Prayer, and much on Luther's interpretation); Konrad Materne, Christliche Glaubens- und Sittenlehre nach Ordnung des lutherischen Katechismus (1853), p. 656, n** (the German Interpretation is "one of Luther's most important preparatory works for the Catechism"); Jeffrey R. Watt, "The Impact of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation," Family Life in Early Modern Times 1500-1789 (2001), p. 144 ("Protestants published large numbers of catechisms, many of which were intended for home use, in which a parent or clergyman would read questions to a child, who was to memorize the appropriate answers"); Linda A. Pollock, "Parent-Child Relations," Family Life, p. 202 ("Protestant mothers had a specific responsibility to catechize children and servants in the home"); Andrew Pettegree, Brand Luther: 1517, Printing, and the Making of the Revolution (Penguin, 2015), p. 208, 147-148 (a nice summary of the Reformation Flugschriften and their evolution)

Item #826