Information
WITH CA. 125 WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS BY A HOLBEIN ASSOCIATE
ALL COLOURED BY AN EARLY HAND
[EVANGELIENBUCH (GOSPELS & EPISTLES)]. Das Plenarium oder Ewangely Buoch: Summer un(d) Winter Teyl, durch das gantz jar ... menschen welche in disem ... mögen überlesen.
(colophon: Basel, printed by Adam Petri von Langendorff, 13 August) 1516. Folio (30 x 19.5 cm). Title-page in red and black with a woodcut pictorial frame, about 125 woodcut illustrations plus about 15 repeats by Hans LÜTZENBURGER after Hans SCHÄUFELEIN and Urs GRAF (5 nearly full-page, plus 2 repeats), 2 woodcut decorative strips, numerous decorated uncial initial letters (3 series, 17-34 mm, with more than 1 block for some letters), and 2 series of plain uncial initials. With the main text in a bastarda (97 mm/20 lines) with opening words and running heads in a large textura. All woodcuts and a few initials coloured by an early hand. Slightly later (ca. 1565) blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards, in a panel design with 3 rolls (1 with Reformation portraits and 1 with biblical figures), a rosette and a leaf, brass fastenings with engraved decoration. With a remarkable half-sheet letterpress bookplate of Johann Hartmann of Forccheim (Bavaria), dated 1581 and with an elaborate border built from Robert Granjon's arabesque fleurons (182 x 100 mm), giving a warning curse to ensure the book's return.
| Orders and Information | € 38000 |
Second edition (by the publisher of the 1514 first edition) of an extensively and beautifully illustrated devotional work, with readings for every day of the year (more extensive for Sundays). The woodblocks are largely the same as in the first edition, but the title-frame was newly made for the present edition. The text is loosely translated from the Gospels and Epistles, with explanatory texts (the book was intended for laymen who could not read Latin), Psalms, and stories from the lives of the Evangelists, Saints, etc. Folios 228 and 228v note the "güt und köstlich" art of printing with further comments on its benefits, ending with a complaint that people prefer to spend 3 shillings at the weinhauß than 1 shilling for a book. The woodcuts are by Hans Franck, usually equated with Hans Lützenburger (d. 1526?) at Basel, closely associated with Hans Holbein the younger and best known for the woodcuts he made for Holbein's 1524 Dance of Death. He here worked after drawings by Hans Schäufelein (the two largest of the four series) and Urs Graf (the title frame and the smallest series), and many show their HS and VG monograms, some also with Franck's shovel mark. The artist for the remaining series is unknown. The book is rare and three of the seven copies we have located are incomplete.
One binding roll shows half-length portraits of Jesus, King David and two Saints, each with a two-line text. Another shows heads of Luther, Hus, Erasmus and possibly Melanchthon. The end leaf at the back is watermarked with a letter P below a square shield with a cross above three hills (similar to Piccard IV, marks XVII 691-704 (dated 1560-70, mostly from Esslingen, near Stuttgart), especially 699.
The bookplate comprises a half sheet pasted down to the inside front board. It reads, "Sum ex Libris Ioannis Hartmanni Ivnioris Forchemii." followed by a quote from Psalm 55:11 (I trust in God and fear not what man can do to me), then his warning to ensure the book stays in his possession: "Est Liber ille meus, caueas deponere loco, Si mihi sustuleris, fur tibi nomen erit." Johann Hartmann is not the chemist of that name, but may be related to the astronomical instrument maker Georg Hartmann (1489-1564), who was born near Forccheim.
In very good condition and with good margins, with a spot in the text in a few leaves (slightly affecting one woodcut) and an occasional minor marginal water stain or tear. A rare devotional work with about 125 beautiful woodcut illustrations and an remarkable 1581 bookplate.
