![BIBLIA PAUPERUM. Blockbook, bifolium c-d [22] from the xylographic edition known as Schreiber III. [Low Countries or perhaps Germany: c. 1460-70].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/CKS/1998_CKS_05974_0029_000(104441).jpg?w=1)
Details
BIBLIA PAUPERUM. Blockbook, bifolium c-d [22] from the xylographic edition known as Schreiber III. [Low Countries or perhaps Germany: c. 1460-70].
Full chancery 2° sheet (268 x 390mm), printed on its inner side only in pale-brown water-based ink, by a rubbing process, from a single double-page woodblock, the outer side blank: each of the two woodcut pages comprising three pictures, four portraits, and Latin text. 2 conjugate leaves only (of 20), signed c and d respectively. Completeness requires 20 sheets [1-202: 40 leaves], but only the first 10 sheets [1-102: 20 leaves, signed a-v] of this copy were orginally issued; the same is true of about half the extant copies of this particular blockbook edition, for reasons so far unexplained. South-German paper with horn watermark, type of Piccard Abt. III (recorded use mostly near its area of production in the middle decades of the 15th century, none later than 1470). COLOURED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND, probably German, in brown, green, yellow, grey and black.
Condition: rule-frame cropped at top and on the left, central fold repaired, some worming; the impression is strong, with no manuscript strengthening of the text and illustrations, the sheet has not been cleaned and the colours retain much freshness.
Provenance: the original blocks (probably Schreiber IV, see Renate Kroll's "Beobachtungen zur Ausgabenfolge der 40 Blättrigen Biblia pauperum", in: Blockbcher des Mittelalters, Gutenberg-Museum exhibition catalogue 1991) were undoubtedly cut in the Netherlands or Flanders. It is not certain that the blocks of the present edition, which were copied from Schreiber ed. I, and thus indirectly from IV, should be given the same origin with equal confidence. The paper stock of this impression and the colouring rather point to Germany, even South Germany. -- Wiblingen, Benedictines. -- Kremsmnster, Benedictines. -- Munich, Karl & Faber Booksellers, catalogue 65 (1936) no. 8, before the copy was broken up. -- Martin Breslauer Inc. catalogue 109 (1988) no. 19.
This anonymous medieval picture-text was given the title Biblia Pauperum in the 18th century by Karl Heinrich von Heinecken. It was not actually composed for the poor, but for the devout literate enough to know their scriptures and follow these complex verse captions, prophecies and typological lessons. It presents a series of central scenes from the New Testament (here the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple), flanked by Old Testament prefigurations (here Abner kneeling before King David, the Queen of Sheba bringing gifts to Solomon; and presentation of the first-born, Anne presenting Samuel to Eli respectively), with portraits of the Prophets and David placed above and below. The work was current in Western Europe since before 1300. No blockbook edition can be dated earlier than 1460.
Thirteen copies of this edition are extant (10 or more quires), one copy was broken up by Payne & Foss in the mid-19th century, while the present one met the same fate in this century (after 1936). Coloured copies or fragments of any Biblia Pauperum blockbook edition are particularly rare. Two sheets from this copy are in the Otto Schäfer Foundation, Schweinfurt, and others were sold by Antiquariat Wölfle and Kornfeld & Klipstein in the 1970s. Schreiber IV, p.4-5 and 14-17; Hind I, p.236 and 241.
Full chancery 2° sheet (268 x 390mm), printed on its inner side only in pale-brown water-based ink, by a rubbing process, from a single double-page woodblock, the outer side blank: each of the two woodcut pages comprising three pictures, four portraits, and Latin text. 2 conjugate leaves only (of 20), signed c and d respectively. Completeness requires 20 sheets [1-202: 40 leaves], but only the first 10 sheets [1-102: 20 leaves, signed a-v] of this copy were orginally issued; the same is true of about half the extant copies of this particular blockbook edition, for reasons so far unexplained. South-German paper with horn watermark, type of Piccard Abt. III (recorded use mostly near its area of production in the middle decades of the 15th century, none later than 1470). COLOURED BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND, probably German, in brown, green, yellow, grey and black.
Condition: rule-frame cropped at top and on the left, central fold repaired, some worming; the impression is strong, with no manuscript strengthening of the text and illustrations, the sheet has not been cleaned and the colours retain much freshness.
Provenance: the original blocks (probably Schreiber IV, see Renate Kroll's "Beobachtungen zur Ausgabenfolge der 40 Blättrigen Biblia pauperum", in: Blockbcher des Mittelalters, Gutenberg-Museum exhibition catalogue 1991) were undoubtedly cut in the Netherlands or Flanders. It is not certain that the blocks of the present edition, which were copied from Schreiber ed. I, and thus indirectly from IV, should be given the same origin with equal confidence. The paper stock of this impression and the colouring rather point to Germany, even South Germany. -- Wiblingen, Benedictines. -- Kremsmnster, Benedictines. -- Munich, Karl & Faber Booksellers, catalogue 65 (1936) no. 8, before the copy was broken up. -- Martin Breslauer Inc. catalogue 109 (1988) no. 19.
This anonymous medieval picture-text was given the title Biblia Pauperum in the 18th century by Karl Heinrich von Heinecken. It was not actually composed for the poor, but for the devout literate enough to know their scriptures and follow these complex verse captions, prophecies and typological lessons. It presents a series of central scenes from the New Testament (here the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple), flanked by Old Testament prefigurations (here Abner kneeling before King David, the Queen of Sheba bringing gifts to Solomon; and presentation of the first-born, Anne presenting Samuel to Eli respectively), with portraits of the Prophets and David placed above and below. The work was current in Western Europe since before 1300. No blockbook edition can be dated earlier than 1460.
Thirteen copies of this edition are extant (10 or more quires), one copy was broken up by Payne & Foss in the mid-19th century, while the present one met the same fate in this century (after 1936). Coloured copies or fragments of any Biblia Pauperum blockbook edition are particularly rare. Two sheets from this copy are in the Otto Schäfer Foundation, Schweinfurt, and others were sold by Antiquariat Wölfle and Kornfeld & Klipstein in the 1970s. Schreiber IV, p.4-5 and 14-17; Hind I, p.236 and 241.