HOLBEIN Hans Icones historiarum Veteris Testamenti, ad vivum expressæ, extremáque diligentia emendatiores factæ.

USTC 47522; Baudrier, V, 209; Brunet, III, 252-253; Mortimer, French, 282; Fairfax Murray, French, I, n° 244; Adams, B-1963; Gültlingen, Bibliographie des livres imprimés à Lyon au seizième siècle, VIII, p. 27, n° 7; Picot, Rothschild, 16; Brun, p. 131; Martine Delaveau & Denise Hillard, Bibles imprimées du XVe au XVIIIe siècle conservées à Paris, 1259; Engammare, “Les figures de la Bible. Le destin oublié d’un genre littéraire en image (XVIe-XVIIe s.)”, in Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée, t. 106, n° 2, 1994, p. 549-591; Jeudwine, Art and Style in Printed Books, I, pp. 168 & 216.

Magnificent copy bound for Madame de Pompadour from the first edtion printed in 1547. One of the most beatiful illustrated books of the 16th century.

Didot, in his Essay on Wood Engraving, analyses at length what he describes as a masterpiece: ‘The compositions of this masterpiece are of the highest style, and, as in the Simulacra of Death, the expressions of the figures are accurate and offer a mixture of simplicity, energy and naivety that characterise Holbein’.

This new edition of Holbein’s Figures from the Bible contains 98 figures, six more than the 1538 edition. Ninety-four woodcuts are attributed to Hans Lützelberger, “the prince of engravers ” (Passavant) after Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) – two of which are published in this edition for the first time, and four portraits of the evangelists engraved on wood by another hand on the reverse of folio N3, which also appear here for the first time.

A quatrain by Gilles Corrozet, in French, is placed under each figure, with a commentary in Latin at the top of each page.

These woodcut figures were drawn by Hans Holbein, as revealed in one of the introductory verses of the work, signed by Nicolas Bourbon, of Vendœuvres: ‘Hoc opus Holbinae nobile cerne manus’ (I have seen this work of Holbein’s noble hands, folio A2v).

First edition, recognisable by the breaks in the title and the French text ending the first line of folio L1r with ‘vices’.

This copy has a distinguished bibliophilic provenance, having belonged to the Marquise de Pompadour, and is bound with her coat of arms. The description of the volume in Madame de Pompadour’s book catalogue mistakenly gives the date as 1621. This fictitious date was probably laid over the original date of the title and the colophon at the time of the publication of the 1765 catalogue. It is on the basis of this false indication that Brunet’s supplement refers to a new edition printed in 1621 that never existed. The correct date of 1547 was subsequently restored by restoring the title and colophon. The paper is thinner where the correct date appears on the title page and colophon as a result of this restoration.

Fine copy.