A man scatters seeds; representing the Biblical parable of the sower; here referring to the "ministry of the word", preaching. Etching by C. Murer after himself, c. 1600-1614.

Zurich : Johann Rudolf Wolf, 1622.

1 print : etching.

Ministerium verbi

Thea Vignau-Wilberg, 'Christoph Murer und die "XL. Emblemata miscella nova"' (Bern : Benteli Verlag, 1982)

Wellcome Collection 26701i

This series was originally intended by Murer to serve as illustration to his play 'Edessa', but he died before completing it. The play concerned the politics surrounding the Arian controversy in the fourth century Christian church. In her book (cited below), T. Vignau-Wilberg demonstrates that Murer used the story of the persecutions in Edessa of non-Arians by Arians as a cipher for the persecution of Protestants by Catholics in his contemporary Europe. However, the play was never published and the etchings were published as emblems eight years after his death, with a different text written by Johann Heinrich Rordorf, sometimes at variance with the intention of the original