4000

The core of the actual Trophaeum consists of two pieces of writing: the letter of introduction, mentioned above, from the village priest, Leopold Braun of Pottenbrunn, dated September 1, 1677, and the report by the Abbot Franciscus of Mariazell and St. Lambert, describing the miraculous cure. This is dated September 12, 1677, that is to say, only a few days later. The activity of the editor or compiler, P.A.E., has provided a preface which as it were fuses the contents of these two documents; he has also added some connecting passages of little importance, and, at the end, an account of the subsequent vicissitudes of the painter, based on enquiries made in the year 1714.¹

The painter’s previous history is thus told three times over in the Trophaeum: (1) in the village priest of Pottenbrunn’s letter of introduction, (2) in the formal report by the Abbot Franciscus and (3) in the editor’s preface. A comparison of these three sources discloses certain discrepancies which it will be not unimportant for us to follow up.

I can now continue with the painter’s story. After he had undergone a prolonged period of penance and prayer at Mariazell, the Devil appeared to him in the sacred Chapel at midnight, on September 8, the Nativity of the Virgin, in the form of a winged dragon, and gave him back the pact, which was written in blood. We shall learn later, to our surprise, that two bonds with the Devil appear in Christoph Haizmann’s story - an earlier one, written in black ink, and a later one, written in blood. The one referred to in the description of the scene of exorcism, as can also he seen from the picture on the title-page, is the one written in blood - that is, the later one.

¹ This would seem to suggest that the Trophaeum, too, dates from 1714.