The Dracula Book You’ve Never Heard Of

There is a Dracula book you’ve never, ever heard of.

No, really! And no, I’m not talking about the vampire book — although I am a huge Bram Stoker stan, like every good Dracula fanatic.

I’m actually referring to the first ever book written about Vlad Dracula, which was published in Germany on October 14th, 1488.

German wood cutting artisans carved these pieces from large hunks of wood with chiseling tools, hence the fine chisel lines still present around the dominant image. Think of it like a big stamp! Of all things, it printed woodcut pamphlets about Vlad III Dracula, Lord of Wallachia some 500 years ago.

The first ever pamphlet written about Dracula was printed by a German named Marcus Ayrer in Nuremburg in 1488 (15 years after Vlad’s death in 1475) and was later reprinted by Hans Sporer in Bamburg (now modern day Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz) in 1491.

The booklet was simply called, “Die Geschicht Dracole Waide” or “The History of Vlad Dracula”. Later versions would be called, “Draicole Waide” or, simply put, Voivod Dracula or Prince Dracula.

A German printing press company still owns these original pieces and occasionally, they run a reprint of the infamous 15th century woodcuts and sell them for donations.