Twelve meter long funeral procession of emperor Charles V

Emperor Charles V died in Spain on 21 September 1558. At that time, his son Philip II was staying in the Low Countries. On 29 and 30 December 1558, Philip organised an impressive funeral procession for his father through the streets of Brussels.

This album is Plantin’s first major work and established his reputation as a publisher, even though he printed only the short texts. The twelve-metre-long frieze reads like a visual narrative, allowing everyone - even at home - to experience the funeral procession of Charles V. The work was sold both as a scroll and as a book, in the five languages of Charles’s realm: Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian.