Collection in focus: the Todten-tanz comes to life
Digitisation of cultural heritage
20 April 2026
The 'dance of death' brought to life
In the Collections of the University of Amsterdam there is a remarkable copy of Todten-Tantz: a 1725 edition, published in Frankfurt am Main by Johann Andrea and Heinrich Hort. The term “dance of death” may call to mind the musical piece Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, but the motif has its origins in painting. The fifteenth-century wall paintings from Basel show a procession of figures (from merchant to priest) who all come into contact with Death, depicted as a dancing skeleton. These paintings formed the basis for various book editions in which the striking plates, featuring similar figures, take center stage. The theme is the well-known maxim memento mori: remember (that you have) to die.
Bringing the collections back to life
This particular edition recently came to the attention of the image studio following a request to supply high-quality reproductions of the illustrations for an animation project. It is easy to see why this book is such an excellent candidate: thanks to the richly colored plates, the skeletons seem to leap off the page. By digitising the images, entirely new possibilities immediately arise. The 'dance of death' has never been so alive!
