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VENDUTO

Réf : 62043

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Hans HOLBEIN

Biblia utriusque Testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem et eam, quam haberi potuit, emendatissimam: additis rerum praecipuis in locis iconibus. Interpretatio nominum Hebraicorum. Index Epistolarum & Evangelorium totius anni. Index rerum & sententiarum utiusque testamenti

Hugues de la Porte (Merchior et Gaspard Trechsel), Lyon 1538, in-folio (23x32,7cm), (4f.) 569pp. (45p.) - Sig. : *4 a-z8 A-M8 N6 AA-BB8 CC6 (mal chiffr. CC4), relié.

HOLBEIN Hans
Biblia utriusque Testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem et eam, quam haberi potuit, emendatissimam [...]
Hugues de la Porte (Melchior et Gaspard Trechsel), Lyon 1538, in-folio 230 x 327 mm (7 7/8 x 12 7/8 "), (4f.) 569 pp (45 p.) - Sig: *4 a-z8 A-M8 N6 AA-BB8 CC6 (erroneously numbered CC4), 18th-century sheep
Editio princeps of the Holbein Bible.
Rare edition that followed the text of Robert Estienne's 1528 Bible, it was banned by the Inquisition and put on the Index by Rome. Text in two columns, a well-margined copy. Printer's device to title and colophon. The work, a first issue, has 95 illustrations (8.5 x 6cm), of which a series of 86 vignettes engraved after drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497?-1543), by the virtuoso Hans Lützelburger (1495-1526).
18th-century brown sheep, spine in seven compartments, all edges mottled red. Tail-piece a little rubbed with small lack, corners rubbed and slightly bumped. A few light dampstains.
Provenance: manuscript ex-libris of Nicolas Tournyer (or Tournier) to title, Royal Councilor and President of the Electors of Amboise, dated 1741. From the collection of Baron Paul Harth (Cat. II, 1985, n°14).
Numerous underlinings and contemporary marginalia, some a little shaved during binding.
Between 1528 and 1532, when engravings were enjoying a roaring success, the Trechsel brothers ordered a new set of illustrations from Hans Holbein, then at Basle. This edition of the Bible was finished in 1538. In the same year, the Trechsel brothers also published the Icones, made up exclusively of Holbein's woodcuts. Long a subject of debate among bibliographers, the Bible's precedence was proved by Jean Vial who confirmed the theory of his colleague Henri Baudrier: the illustrations were indeed first published in the edition here offered for sale. Heavily copied illicitly, these previously unseen vignettes were printed again in Paris in 1539 and Antwerp in 1540.
The enormous expressiveness of the illustrations was skillfully captured by the engraver Hans Lützelburger, who used boxwood blocks, which are denser and thus allow for more detailed engraving than pear, and engraved the entire set of little scenes by line drawing, without cross-hatching. The vignettes, whose size wouldn't usually have allowed for a lot of detail, are masterpieces of detail and perspective. They also show Holbein's talent as a portraitist who, buffeted by the Reformation and recommended by Erasmus to Thomas More, would serve for some time as Court Painter in England. Essentially, at the time when the Bible was being published by the Trechsel brothers, he was travelling across Europe to make portraits of princesses who were potential brides for Henry VIII.  
"The compositions of the illustrations for the Bible are masterpieces of the first order. The expressions of the figures are just right and offer that mix of simplicity, energy, and naivety characteristic of Holbein." (Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Essai typographique et bibliographique sur l'histoire de la gravure sur bois, 1863).
A very good copy of one of the most important masterpieces of Renaissance wood engraving.   

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