This book shows how text decoration evolved into an innovative form of Reformed visual culture
after iconoclasm and was used to transform church spaces to accommodate Reformed worship. A
story of continuity throughout the Reformation appears in the pre-Reformation roots of designs
and spatial arrangements of displayed texts beyond evident and major change. The work is based
on a comprehensive inventory of text panels and text paintings installed in churches throughout
the Dutch provinces between ca 1575-1800. A North Sea perspective presents text decoration as a
universal Protestant phenomenon which took different forms according to the liturgical and
dogmatic requirements of denominations: from English Ten Commandments boards and catechism
altarpieces in churches in the Lutheran Danish Kingdom to Lutheran text altarpieces that
showcase the presence of Calvinism in northwest Germany.
