Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum [male hermits]. Engraved in the manner of Maarten de Vos (1532-1603) and published by the Sadeler brothers Johann (1550-1600) and Rafael 1560-1628), Flemish.

Images on this page

The Sadeler brothers were engravers and publishers, sometimes publishing another engraver. Their portfolio respresented ancient desert Christian hermits, in an idyllic semi-rural setting, anacronistically not antiquity or desert, each hermit busy in his task, always an exemplary figure. Who were all of these hermits? We know Paul of Thebes, Anthony, and Jerome, but the others are obscure. Two stand out, besides Jerome with his companinable lion.
Abraham was the hermit whose granddaughter was lost to prostitution and went in search of her to rescue her. Paphnutius pursued the better-known prostitute Thais, converting her. Two medieval plays by woman playwritght Hrotswitha of Gandersheim (935-1000), titled after the names of the male protagonists, Abraham and Paphnutiius, extend the memory of these hermits of popular lore.
All of the hermits are presented in a distinctive Northern Renaissance and Flemish style that edifies, idealizes, and occasionally provokes a sense of nostalgia over an imagined medieval order lost to contemporaries, though updated for the sensibilities of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This book of collected engravings must have provided hours of idle reflection for its urban, professional owner, scenes of perfection exempted from the turmoil of the times.

FIGURES REPRESENTED

1. Paul (of Thebes)
2. Antony (the Great)
3. Hilarion
4. Abraham
5. Malchus
6. Ioannes
7. Theonas
8. Apollonius
9. Mutius
10. Helanus
11. Ioannes
12. Paphnuius
13. Didymus
14. Hellas
15. Spyridon
16. Eulogius
17. Apelles
18. Origen
19. Evagrius
20. Or
21. Copres
22. Macharius (Egypt)
23. Macarius (Alexandria)
24. Anub
25. Ciomus
26. Ammon
27. Onofrius
28. Piamon
29. Jerome