This collection contains two engravings from Hendrik Goltzius's The Life of the Virgin series: The Visitation (1593) and The Circumcision (1594).
The Visitation is the second print in the series, and depicts the scene described in Luke 1:39-45 where Mary visits Elizabeth in Judah (in the style of Parmigianino). Text beneath the image engraved by Franco Estius: "Plena Deo virgo, coelesti Pnenmate foeta, / Cognatum Helisaben montana per aspera visit; / Exultat sterilis saecunda, exultat et infans / Iam tunc in gravidae genitricis ventre Prophetes."
The Circumcision depicts the scene of Christ's circumcision described in Luke 2:21 (after the style of Albrecht Dürer). The text beneath the image engraved by C. Schonaeus reads: "Cernis ut octava sit circuncisus Iesus / Luce puer, tenero accipiens in corpore vulnus, / Ad normam veteris legis, ritumque receptum, / Isacidis multos observatumque per annos."
The other four prints in the series which are not included in the collection at Pitts Library are: The Annuncation (1594), The Adoration of Shepherds (1594), The Adoration of the Magi (1593), and The Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist (1593).
Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617) was a leading Dutch engraver in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.