BIBLE, in German. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1483.

Koberger's monumental illustrated German Bible, with vibrant hand-colored woodcuts and illumination by the Koberger workshop and in a near-contemporary German roll-tooled binding. This is the ninth edition of the German Bible, with text translated from the Vulgate and incorporating the same revisions as those in the Low German Bibles printed at Cologne in 1478/9. "Besides textual similarities, the Koberger Bible and the [two Low German] Cologne Bibles share the same woodcuts, the first Bible illustrations to span two columns. Taken together, the Cologne and Koberger Bibles form a trio aimed at a wide German market. The Cologne Bibles, one in each of two low German dialects, and the Koberger Bible, in standard German, did not infringe on each other's readership. Furthermore, their appeal went beyond a literate audience through the illustrations. The intention behind the woodcuts is made explicit in the Cologne Bible: the facilitate understanding and to arouse interest. They consciously imitated imagery found in churches, and are indirectly patterned on a 1460 manuscript for the Cologne area" (Ford). These cuts would only be printed one further time, in 1522, but they were much imitated by other printers. Koberger was part of the financial consortium behind the Cologne Bibles (alongside the Brotherhood of the Common Life), explaining the many similarities between them. This Bible was available from Koberger's workshop in several issues, uncolored, simply colored, and—as the present copy—colored with deluxe illumination. Goff B-632; Bod-inc B-330; BMC II 424; ISTC ib00632000; Ford BPH, 41. See Henning Wendland, "Eine fünfhundertjährige Inkunabel: Anton Kobergers deutsche Bibel," in Philobiblon 28 (1984), pp. 30-37.

Royal folio (385 x 268mm). 585 leaves (without initial blank in second part). 4 illuminated initials on gauffered gold grounds with blue and red borders, red and blue particolored larger initials at book heads, smaller red or blue Lombard initials, red paragraph marks and capital strokes. Half-page woodcut of the creation of Eve on gauffered gold ground with blue and red borders, as well as numerous smaller woodcuts throughout the text in contemporary hand-color (occasional small marginal tears, occasional fingersoiling, a few sheets browned). Early 16th-century roll-tooled pigskin, bosses and clasps, some pink and brown leather index tabs remaining (neatly rebacked preserving original spine panel and endpapers). Custom box. Provenance: several 18th-century inscriptions related to patristic scholar J.D. Michaelis – Mary Schell Collins, 1864-1948 (bookplate).