The present edition boasts masterly woodcuts by Jörg Breu the Elder (ca. 1475/80-1537) which "count among the best of his middle period" and may "almost be considered original creations" (cf. Röttinger, p. 51). The title-page depicts the personified constellation of the planets Saturn and Jupiter, which the author glosses as "an old, bent, bearded, limping man lying upon another man holding an ox by the horns, as if to strangle him" (cf. fol. A5v). In his preface, the author styles himself an interpreter of divine providence, invoking several philosophers and saints (including Aristotle, Ptolemy, and St. Birgitta of Sweden) seen in another woodcut, assembled beneath the gaze of the heavenly father. The prologue ends with a "prayer of the master of this little book" and a half-page woodcut. The next illustration depicts the God-ordained order of the world: God in His heavens, the Pope and the Emperor by the sides, and two farmers tilling the soil in the foreground.

While the book's tripartite structure follows that of the estates, there is little doubt that the author's focus is squarely on the Emperor and his territories: "A distinguishing feature of Lichtenberger's prognostication is that it is evidently intended for German consumption. Its political predictions are largely for the Holy Roman Empire" (Thorndike, 477). Subjects include Germany's geopolitical competitor France, Bohemian heretics, and the Ottoman threat, garnished with suggestions for political reform in the Empire. In the 16th century, the "minor prophet" and church reformer predicted by Lichtenberger was widely identified with Luther (cf. ibid., 476). Reaching ahead as far as 1567, the numerous Latin and German editions of Lichtenberger's prognostications continued to find ever new readers. Indeed, the book contained "a little of almost everything, a fact which may account for its popularity. Lichtenberger dips into past as well as future [...]. Present political and religious opinion is also freely expressed [...] He rails against the Jews for not accepting Christianity and seems to criticize the introduction of Roman law into Germany. [...] Even alchemy is introduced into the discussion" (ibid., 479).

Lichtenberger himself had provided fairly detailed visual instructions in his text: one image is said to show the church as a ship in distress at sea, yet another "the imperial eagle, all sad" and "bereft of plumage", though defended by "a young eagle" (cf. fol. B6r). The very next page, however, shows "the eagle beset by a wolf with gaping maw" (cf. fol. B6v). This highly scarce edition has escaped most bibliographers.

References

VD 16, ZV 17889. Durling 2816. H. Röttinger, "Zum Holzschnittwerke Jörg Breus d. Ä.", Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 31 (1908), pp. 48-62. Not in Adams, BM-STC German, Brunet, Ebert, Graesse, or Zinner. For Lichtenberger cf. Thorndike IV, 473-480.