[Early Printing - Lyons] [Early Book Illustration - Woodcuts - Hans Holbein the younger]
[Holy Bible - Latin] [Biblia Latina] [Biblia Vulgata] [Roman Catholic Church] [Forbidden Books]
Printed in Lyons by Jean and François Frellon for Hugues de La Porte and heirs of Aymon de La Porte, 1544.
ILLUSTRATED WITH 98 SUPERB WOODCUTS OF WHICH 86 ARE BY HANS HOLBEIN.
SECOND EDITION OF THE 'HOLBEIN BIBLE'.
EXCEEDINGLY RARE! Only 2 copies appear to be located in US libraries (according to WorldCat), 3 in UK (according to COPAC), 1 in France, 1 in Italy. 4 in Germany (according to KVK). Its incredible rarity may be due to the fact that this 1544 Bible was put on the Roman Inquisition's "Index of Forbidden Books" (see e.g. 'Index des Livres Interdits VIII: Index de Rome 1557, 1558, 1559' (Université de Sherbrooke: Centre d'études de la Renaissance), p.313-314, no.108:c).
This is the second edition of Biblia Latina with the famous woodcuts of Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 - 1543), which first appeared in the 1538 Bible also printed for De La Porta in Lyons. This 1544 Bible contains 91 woodcuts (including one repetition) in the Old Testament and 7 in the New Testament. According to Mortimer, 86 of the O.T. woodcuts are by Hans Holbein (or even 87, as the 'Adam and Eve' is also generally attributed to Holbein). "In the year 1538, Melchior and Gaspard Trechsel printed both the first edition of the [Holbein's] Icones [Historiarum Veteris Testamenti] (ninety-two woodcuts), for the Frellons, and the first Bible to contain the Holbein cuts, for Hugues de la Porte. [...] This 1544 edition, although not a page-for-page reprint, follows the illustration of the 1538 edition fairly closely. The 1538 rdition had a total of eighty-eight cuts in the Old Testament, comprising eighty-six from the Icones, a cut of Adam and Eve also generally attributed to Holbein, and a cut of Jonah and the whale, by another hand. [...] In the 1544 edition one Icones block for II Kings I has been added [...] Abisag is omitted and replaced by a repetition of Esther. Two other subjects by another hand have been added at Genesis iv and ix (leaves a1v and a2v)" (Mortimer, 72).
Baudrier was the first to declare that this famous series of cuts made its first appearance in the 1538 de la Porta Bible and not in the Historiarum Veteris Testamenti Icones as formerly believed. The question of precedence was finally settled by the appearance of Jean Vial's article in the Gutenberg Jahrbuch for 1957 in which he proves conclusively that the cuts were first used in the Bible.
The success and subsequent influence of the Holbein's Biblical illustrations was enormous, and they continued to be widely copied and imitated even up till the nineteenth century. The scenes are lively, fluid, and executed with great skill, the mood fluctuating from drama to pathos. The interaction between the figures is often almost palpable.Worringer writes that the development of German woodcut technique reached its apogee in Holbein's Biblical illustrations and his Dance of Death. In Worringer's words, Holbein "founded an illustration style of classical richness and clarity. He established a synthesis between sophisticated mastery and primitive creativity, which gives his illustrations the character of classical models." Arthur Hind notes: "In Holbein's treatment of the different subjects there must of course have been a considerable element of convention, and a large number were directly suggested by the attractive little Venetian cuts of the Malermi Bible of 1490, which in its turn had drawn freely from the Cologne Bible of 1480. But Holbein's work so far surpasses anything in the Malermi Bible, turning shorthand symbols into real life, that it has established a permanent appeal to the popular imagination while the other remains the more exclusive delight of the antiquarian." (Hans Holbein the younger: his Old Testament illustrations, p.10 [in A.Hind (ed.), "Great engravers"])
"...These woodcuts are in all ways admirable. [Holbein] has concentrated his skill upon the faithful and accurate telling of these sacred stories and he does this with a perfect understanding of their strong dramatic power and their equally strong human interest. [Holbein] is revealed in them as a teller of stories of the first rank, with the power of seizing the most dramatic moment of each incident he depicts with unfailing instinct, and then representing it with a few unerring strokes of his pencil clearly and simply ". (Chamberlain, Hans Holbein the Younger, Vol. I, pp. 229ff)
Born into a family of artists in Augsburg, Hans Holbein the younger (1497-1543) was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history of book design. Holbein trained with his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, an accomplished painter of the Late Gothic school, who operated a successful workshop. In 1515, he moved to Basel, where he worked for a circle of intellectuals and their printers. Social and religious conflict caused by the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland made Holbein seek elsewhere for patronage. He travelled to England in 1526 with an introduction to Sir Thomas More from the scholar Erasmus, whose portrait he had painted in 1523. He stayed for two years producing portraits at the court of Henry VIII, before returning to Basel where his wife and two children lived. A particularly violent burst of iconoclasm in Basel in 1529 amid an atmosphere of religious crisis made Holbein decide to return to England in 1532. His fame rests on his superlative painted portraits, such as the dazzling Ambassadors and the unknown Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (both National Gallery, London) and his vivid yet informal portrait drawings (many in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle).
Bibliographic references:
Mortimer/Harvard (French 16th Century Books), no.72; Baudrier, vol.7, p.314-315; Brun p.153; Woltmann, Holbein, vol.2, p.173: k; Fiere cat. (1938), no.80; not in Adams, Darlow & Moule, Brunet, Murray, Rothschild.
Physical description:
Folio (leaves measure 321 mm x 231 mm). Full 16th century vellum over boards, MS title on a paper label to spine.
Pagination: [8], 601, [31] (of [35]) pp.
Signature collation: A4 a-z8 A-O8 P6 Q-R8 [-R3,6].
Lacking 2 conjugate leaves in the last quire of the Index, otherwise COMPLETE with all text of the Bible and all woodcuts present.
Text printed in two columns in Roman letter, with small roman and italic printed marginalia.
Numerous decorative and historiated initials of various sizes, including an 'I' with a scene of the Creation of Man, and a 'P' illustrating the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus.
Woodcut 'Samson' device of La Porte (Baudrier, no.7) on title-page. "The word 'Biblia' in the title-page is xylographic, cut in a cartouche in the manner of Estienne titles." (Mortimer)
Includes Indexes at the end of the volume. Colophon on leaf R8r.
Provenance:
An Inquisition censor's note in Latin on the lower blank portion of the last preliminary page (leaf A4v) written in 1555 by a Dominican Fra. Salvator Mangiavacca, in Palermo (Sicily).
Another possession note of ''D. Joseph Maria Ambrosinus' in 16th century hand on the title-page.
Bibliographical notes in Italian in 18th-early 19th century hand on front fly-leaf.
Condition:
Good antiquarian condition. Without 2 leaves of Index, otherwise complete. Vellum binding soiled and worn on edges with some repairs. Some passages in printed marginal notes crossed out in ink by a Censor, occasionally resulting in a small hole due to ink burning through paper (however, the expurgation occurs only in side-notes and chapter headings, not in the Biblical text itself, which is intact). Title-page creased, somewhat soiled and with early owners signatures. Early ms. note by the censor to foot of A4v. Leaf a1 with bottom outer corner torn off with loss of a few words of text. Small worm-hole in the first two quires. The "Fall of Man" woodcut on a1v stained and with light adhesion marks (perhaps as a result of the censor's attempt at defacing it). Top margin cropped somewhat closely, affecting running titles in a few Index leaves only. Moderate damp-staining (mostly marginal) to numerous leaves. Some leaves moderately browned. Occasional soiling. Otherwise mostly clean and solid volume with excellent dark impression of the woodcuts. Binding tight. All in all, a presentable exemplar of this extremely rare beautifully illustrated Bible.
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