AIX:CAROLINGIAN RELICS Receuil ou abrege historique tiré des plus ancien autheurs pour faire voire de quelle maniere les saintes reliques... dans l'Eglise Royale de Nôtre Dame d'Aix la Chapelle y ont été transportées par l'Empereur Charlemagne.
Aix, G. Houben, c.1776 24mo: wood-engraved frontispiece showing Charlemagne holding the church, with a view of the city below; fullpage arms of the dedicatee, Count Clement Belderbusch and two facing fullpage illustrations each showing fourteen relics.Contemporary wrappers of a particularly pretty floral paper. Among the most venerated of all relics were those obtained by Charlemagne for his imperial palace. Swarms of the devout joined the Shrine Pilgrimages throughout the middle ages. The four most important relics were, and still are, exhibited only once every seven years. This little work acted as a guide for a pilgrim; it contains a history of the church, a description of its relics and prayers to be said during the demonstration of the relics. With its illustrations it would have been an attractive souvenir of the purchaser's undertaking.
£450
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