Translations:Rosary/18/en

Picture rosaries became popular around 1500, when woodcuts were inexpensively reproduced for the first time. Because of the complexity of printing 150 pictures for the Hail Mary beads, a new rosary with 15 pictures (1 for each Our Father bead) was introduced. During the Renaissance, the 150 thoughts for each Hail Mary bead were used less and less, until only the 15 thoughts for the Our Fathers remained, surviving as the 15 mysteries used in the Catholic Church today. Supplementary prayers or meditations were usually read before each decade to augment the brief mysteries. A return to the medieval form of the rosary began in the twentieth century with the appearance of several series of Hail Mary meditations in Germany, Switzerland and Canada.