Description

Biblia Pauperum.- Single leaf from a blockbook Biblia Pauperum in Latin, from the Wiblingen copy of Schreiber's edition III, folio 12 (signed m), printed on one side only in pale brown water-based ink by a rubbing process from a single woodblock, comprising 3 images, 4 portraits and Latin text, verso blank, in contemporary hand-colouring in red/brown, pink, yellow-ochre and green, a few small worm-holes, left side reinforced to verso, trimmed at head with loss to part of top line on left side and all of top line on right side, right side trimmed just touching edge of text and woodcut frame, chancery folio (270 x 194mm.), [Netherlands], [c.1465].

Rare survival in generally excellent condition.

Blockbooks are codices produced entirely from woodblocks; the earliest examples of which were not printed with black oil-based ink in a press such as Gutenberg had invented, but rather impressions of the woodcut pages were obtained in thin watery ink by rubbing on the reverse of the paper. The technique was in rare cases combined with manuscript (chiro-xylography) or typography (notably several Dutch semi-blockbook editions of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis).

The earlier blockbooks, as here, were printed on one side of the paper only, due to the nature of the inks, which would be damaged if attempting to print on a second side. When bound together, the one-sided sheets produced two pages of images and text, followed by two blank pages. The blank pages were ordinarily pasted together, so as to produce a book without blanks. Short popular works for which there was a steady market, such as Latin grammars for students or illustrated meditative texts for priests and the devout, could be cheaply and simply republished from existing blocks according to demand, without the necessity of carefully planning an edition size as demanded by printing from movable type. The equipment that a publisher or 'Formschneider' needed was not very bulky, and there is ample evidence that woodblocks travelled far and wide.

The term 'Biblia Pauperum' was not used contemporaneously, but only came into general use in the 18th century, after it was introduced by Karl Heinrich von Heinecken, the first student of the productions. However, the term is misleading, as the book was very likely not meant to teach the poor layman and illiterate, nor was it intended as sermon notes for the lesser clergy, as the Speculum Humanae Salvationis was. In fact, remarkable skills were required from the medieval user to read the complex arrangement of Biblical material and symbols, let alone the heavily abbreviated Latin text.

The exact layout of the Netherlandish blockbook tradition is not precisely that of any known manuscript. In the forty-leaf Biblia Pauperum, as here, the leaves are arranged into compartments with an architectural framework. The centre depicts a scene from the life of Christ and is flanked by two prefigurations from the Old Testament, above and below these panels are figures of prophets and saints. Accompanying texts explain the relationship between the Old and New Testament subjects, and banderoles contain brief quotations from each prophet. Both text and image were cut and printed from the same wooden block. The illustrations here depict:

Centre: The Transfiguration. Jesus is flanked by Moses to his right, Elias to his left, the three Apostles sit in awe and amazement in front.

Left: Abraham encounters three angelic visitors at his home.

Right: The three youths placed by Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace, survive.

While the woodblocks were definitely cut and probably printed in the Netherlands, the colouring in the present fragments points to Germany, especially to Ulm, where single-sheet woodcuts were painted in similar red-lake, yellow-ochre and bright green. The blockbook was probably coloured after it reached the monastery of Wiblingen, just outside Ulm.

Watermark: hunting horn, similar, but not identical, to Piccard Horn III, 279, found in Southern Germany and the Upper Rhine 1465-6. The form and position of the chain-lines is in accordance with Picard, although with rings for the cord of the horn, as in the much earlier Briquet 7642 (early 15th century).

Five closely copied sets of woodblocks can be distinguished, whose impressions were divided into ten editions (or perhaps more properly, states) by W. L. Schreiber almost a century ago. Considering its 10 editions, both Netherlandish and German, the bulk with forty leaves, the book must have had immense popularity. It is now generally agreed that the first 40-leaf Biblia Pauperum was produced around 1460 in either Haarlem or Utrecht. But the exact chronology for the individual editions is still discussed, and the interrelations of editions Schreiber IVII are complex, certain blocks continuing through several editions, other subjects being recut at various intervals. Different sets of blocks no doubt led concurrent useful lives.

The Wiblingen leaves come from Schreiber's edition III "probably Netherlandish. Stronger in character than [Schreiber] I, though less naturalistic in drawing. In its sterner convention and dignity of style it is nearer to the tradition of the Apocalypse, Schreiber I-III."

Schreiber ed. III is regarded as one of the best and most artistically valuable of the Biblia Pauperum. The figures in this edition are cut in simple strong outlines, with vigorous facial characterization suggested rather than elaborated; shading is used sparingly and unobtrusively. The letters are primitive renderings of a medium sized formal Gothic book-hand.

Blockbooks of any type are now extremely rare on the market. Single sheets occasionally appear, such as the Schreiber IV Apocalypse leaf in the Vershbow Collection (Christies, 9-10 April 2013, Lot 121).

Provenance:

1. Wiblingen, Benediktinerkloster [Wiblingen Abbey], Ulm. The opening leaves, ff. a-b, are preserved with original flyleaf and an 18th century ownership inscription Monasterii Wiblingani on f. a. verso.

2. Austria, Kremsmünster Abbey, another ownership inscription Nunc Cremisanensis usque dum, also on f. a verso.

3. Buxheim, Kartäuserkloster [The Charterhouse at Buxheim].

4. Graf Friedrich Carl Rudolph von Waldbott-Bassenheim (1779-1830).

5. Graf Hugo Philipp von Waldbott-Bassenheim (1820-1895).

6. Munich, Karl & Faber, auction XI, 1935, lot 22.

7. Munich, Karl & Faber, catalogue 65, 1936, no. 18. The 10 bifolia were still intact at this stage.

8. Kornfeld & Klipstein, anniversary sale, 1977, lot 1.

9. Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, 21 June 1979.

10. Christies London, 1 December 2016, lot 97

Literature: Manfred von Arnim, Katalog der Bibliothek Otto Schäfer. Teil 1: Drucke, Manuskripte und Einbände des 15. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1984, p. 70-74; Wilhelm Ludwig Schreiber, Manuel de l' amateur de la gravure sur bois au XVe siecle, vol. IV, Leipzig, 1902, pp. 4 and 10-89 (Edition III, Plate XLII); Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Vol 1, 1935; Sabine Mertens, Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen als Lektüre, Gutenberg-Museum, exhibition cat. Mainz 1991, studies on Biblia pauperum: Allan H. Stevenson, pp. 229-262; Avril Henry, pp. 263-288; Renate Kroll, pp. 289-310; short census of all known blockbooks, pp. 354-412; Albert Labriola & John Smeltz, The Bible of the Poor, A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9 d.2, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, 1990; Sam Fogg, Text Manuscripts and Documents 2200BC to 1600AD, catalogue 16, London 1995, no. 82.; Nigel F. Palmer, "Blockbooks, woodcut and metalcut single sheets." In A catalogue of books printed in the fifteenth century now in the Bodleian Library, I, Oxford 2005, pp. 1-50, this edition no. BB-4, see p. 15; Bettina Wagner (ed.), Vom ABC bis zur Apokalypse, exhibition cat. Munich 2012, pp. 46-53; G. Drescher (ed.), Bilder des Glaubens in der Zeit Martin Luthers, exhibition cat. Schweinfurt 2015, no. 3; Jörn Günther Rare Books, Parchment and Gold, cat. 11, Stalden 2015, no. 72; Jörn Günther Rare Books, Early printed Bibles 1454-1580, cat. 12, Stalden 2016, no. 3.

Lot 107

Biblia Pauperum.- , Single leaf from a blockbook Biblia Pauperum in Latin, from the Wiblingen copy of Schreiber's edition III, Netherlands, 1465.  

Estimate: £25,000 - 35,000

Description

Biblia Pauperum.- Single leaf from a blockbook Biblia Pauperum in Latin, from the Wiblingen copy of Schreiber's edition III, folio 12 (signed m), printed on one side only in pale brown water-based ink by a rubbing process from a single woodblock, comprising 3 images, 4 portraits and Latin text, verso blank, in contemporary hand-colouring in red/brown, pink, yellow-ochre and green, a few small worm-holes, left side reinforced to verso, trimmed at head with loss to part of top line on left side and all of top line on right side, right side trimmed just touching edge of text and woodcut frame, chancery folio (270 x 194mm.), [Netherlands], [c.1465].

Rare survival in generally excellent condition.

Blockbooks are codices produced entirely from woodblocks; the earliest examples of which were not printed with black oil-based ink in a press such as Gutenberg had invented, but rather impressions of the woodcut pages were obtained in thin watery ink by rubbing on the reverse of the paper. The technique was in rare cases combined with manuscript (chiro-xylography) or typography (notably several Dutch semi-blockbook editions of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis).

The earlier blockbooks, as here, were printed on one side of the paper only, due to the nature of the inks, which would be damaged if attempting to print on a second side. When bound together, the one-sided sheets produced two pages of images and text, followed by two blank pages. The blank pages were ordinarily pasted together, so as to produce a book without blanks. Short popular works for which there was a steady market, such as Latin grammars for students or illustrated meditative texts for priests and the devout, could be cheaply and simply republished from existing blocks according to demand, without the necessity of carefully planning an edition size as demanded by printing from movable type. The equipment that a publisher or 'Formschneider' needed was not very bulky, and there is ample evidence that woodblocks travelled far and wide.

The term 'Biblia Pauperum' was not used contemporaneously, but only came into general use in the 18th century, after it was introduced by Karl Heinrich von Heinecken, the first student of the productions. However, the term is misleading, as the book was very likely not meant to teach the poor layman and illiterate, nor was it intended as sermon notes for the lesser clergy, as the Speculum Humanae Salvationis was. In fact, remarkable skills were required from the medieval user to read the complex arrangement of Biblical material and symbols, let alone the heavily abbreviated Latin text.

The exact layout of the Netherlandish blockbook tradition is not precisely that of any known manuscript. In the forty-leaf Biblia Pauperum, as here, the leaves are arranged into compartments with an architectural framework. The centre depicts a scene from the life of Christ and is flanked by two prefigurations from the Old Testament, above and below these panels are figures of prophets and saints. Accompanying texts explain the relationship between the Old and New Testament subjects, and banderoles contain brief quotations from each prophet. Both text and image were cut and printed from the same wooden block. The illustrations here depict:

Centre: The Transfiguration. Jesus is flanked by Moses to his right, Elias to his left, the three Apostles sit in awe and amazement in front.

Left: Abraham encounters three angelic visitors at his home.

Right: The three youths placed by Nebuchadnezzar in the fiery furnace, survive.

While the woodblocks were definitely cut and probably printed in the Netherlands, the colouring in the present fragments points to Germany, especially to Ulm, where single-sheet woodcuts were painted in similar red-lake, yellow-ochre and bright green. The blockbook was probably coloured after it reached the monastery of Wiblingen, just outside Ulm.

Watermark: hunting horn, similar, but not identical, to Piccard Horn III, 279, found in Southern Germany and the Upper Rhine 1465-6. The form and position of the chain-lines is in accordance with Picard, although with rings for the cord of the horn, as in the much earlier Briquet 7642 (early 15th century).

Five closely copied sets of woodblocks can be distinguished, whose impressions were divided into ten editions (or perhaps more properly, states) by W. L. Schreiber almost a century ago. Considering its 10 editions, both Netherlandish and German, the bulk with forty leaves, the book must have had immense popularity. It is now generally agreed that the first 40-leaf Biblia Pauperum was produced around 1460 in either Haarlem or Utrecht. But the exact chronology for the individual editions is still discussed, and the interrelations of editions Schreiber IVII are complex, certain blocks continuing through several editions, other subjects being recut at various intervals. Different sets of blocks no doubt led concurrent useful lives.

The Wiblingen leaves come from Schreiber's edition III "probably Netherlandish. Stronger in character than [Schreiber] I, though less naturalistic in drawing. In its sterner convention and dignity of style it is nearer to the tradition of the Apocalypse, Schreiber I-III."

Schreiber ed. III is regarded as one of the best and most artistically valuable of the Biblia Pauperum. The figures in this edition are cut in simple strong outlines, with vigorous facial characterization suggested rather than elaborated; shading is used sparingly and unobtrusively. The letters are primitive renderings of a medium sized formal Gothic book-hand.

Blockbooks of any type are now extremely rare on the market. Single sheets occasionally appear, such as the Schreiber IV Apocalypse leaf in the Vershbow Collection (Christies, 9-10 April 2013, Lot 121).

Provenance:

1. Wiblingen, Benediktinerkloster [Wiblingen Abbey], Ulm. The opening leaves, ff. a-b, are preserved with original flyleaf and an 18th century ownership inscription Monasterii Wiblingani on f. a. verso.

2. Austria, Kremsmünster Abbey, another ownership inscription Nunc Cremisanensis usque dum, also on f. a verso.

3. Buxheim, Kartäuserkloster [The Charterhouse at Buxheim].

4. Graf Friedrich Carl Rudolph von Waldbott-Bassenheim (1779-1830).

5. Graf Hugo Philipp von Waldbott-Bassenheim (1820-1895).

6. Munich, Karl & Faber, auction XI, 1935, lot 22.

7. Munich, Karl & Faber, catalogue 65, 1936, no. 18. The 10 bifolia were still intact at this stage.

8. Kornfeld & Klipstein, anniversary sale, 1977, lot 1.

9. Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, 21 June 1979.

10. Christies London, 1 December 2016, lot 97

Literature: Manfred von Arnim, Katalog der Bibliothek Otto Schäfer. Teil 1: Drucke, Manuskripte und Einbände des 15. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1984, p. 70-74; Wilhelm Ludwig Schreiber, Manuel de l' amateur de la gravure sur bois au XVe siecle, vol. IV, Leipzig, 1902, pp. 4 and 10-89 (Edition III, Plate XLII); Arthur M. Hind, An Introduction to a History of Woodcut, Vol 1, 1935; Sabine Mertens, Blockbücher des Mittelalters: Bilderfolgen als Lektüre, Gutenberg-Museum, exhibition cat. Mainz 1991, studies on Biblia pauperum: Allan H. Stevenson, pp. 229-262; Avril Henry, pp. 263-288; Renate Kroll, pp. 289-310; short census of all known blockbooks, pp. 354-412; Albert Labriola & John Smeltz, The Bible of the Poor, A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9 d.2, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, 1990; Sam Fogg, Text Manuscripts and Documents 2200BC to 1600AD, catalogue 16, London 1995, no. 82.; Nigel F. Palmer, "Blockbooks, woodcut and metalcut single sheets." In A catalogue of books printed in the fifteenth century now in the Bodleian Library, I, Oxford 2005, pp. 1-50, this edition no. BB-4, see p. 15; Bettina Wagner (ed.), Vom ABC bis zur Apokalypse, exhibition cat. Munich 2012, pp. 46-53; G. Drescher (ed.), Bilder des Glaubens in der Zeit Martin Luthers, exhibition cat. Schweinfurt 2015, no. 3; Jörn Günther Rare Books, Parchment and Gold, cat. 11, Stalden 2015, no. 72; Jörn Günther Rare Books, Early printed Bibles 1454-1580, cat. 12, Stalden 2016, no. 3.

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