Beschreibung:

BIBLE, German. Biblia, das ist gantze heilige Schrifft, Deudsch D. Mart. Luth. Wittemberg: Hans Krafft Heirs, 1584.
BIBLE, German. Biblia, das ist gantze heilige Schrifft, Deudsch D. Mart. Luth. Wittemberg: Hans Krafft Heirs, 1584. Volume one (of 2), 2 o (374 x 247 mm). Title printed in red and black within woodcut border, woodcut portrait of August, Elector of Saxony, one full-page woodcut of the Creation of Eve signed HB (Hans Beham) and dated 1550 and 149 woodcut illustrations in text ALL COLORED AND HEIGHTENED WITH GOLD BY A CONTEMPORARY HAND. (Title torn and repaired, K2 torn affecting text, Cc4 and Hhh3 with short tear affecting a few lines, occationally some light staining.) A SPLENDID GERMAN RENAISSANCE BINDING, MADE FOR AUGUST, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (1526-1586) the covers divided into panels by four wooden frames, between the two outer frames are 10 gilt and painted plaques of lead, decorated with four masks in corners, representations of the muses Terpsichore, Polihymnia, Euterpe and Erato on the sides, other figures and masks on top and bottom, between the second and the third frame, is a wide panel with lead plaques of human and animal masks in corners, on a gilt ground and additionally decorated with cut out and mounted leather ornaments to an Moresque design, between the third and fourth wooden frames is a richly ornamented Renaissance border formed of four lead plaques in the same style, showing urns and masks, in the center of covers are the arms of the Elector painted in colors and gilt under glass, the spine is richly gilt, gilt and gauffered and painted edges showing the arms of Saxony and decorative ornaments (glass on upper cover broken, spine repaired along ends and joints, the arms on the back cover restored). Provenance : ELECTOR AUGUST OF SAXONY (binding); Petrus Christoph Lörs (ownership inscription dated 1691, family Bible, recording births of other family members through 1769, manuscript notes on endpapers); Antiquariat Joseph Baer & Co. (offered in a catalogue in 1920); purchased from Emil Offenbacher, 1 September 1955. THE DEDICATION COPY TO AUGUST, ELECTOR OF SAXONY, and handsomely colored by a CONTEMPORARY HAND, bound for him probably by a Nuremberg workshop, with the plaques being according to Baer an excellent examples of Renaissance figuration in the style of the Nuremberg goldsmith Elias Lenker. This is an uncommon edition of the final version of Luther's great translation. Not in Darlow & Moule.