Holland, but they do not fix the date of printing, which may have been as early as the year 1425, or as late as 1450.[1]
The illustration on the following page is a fac-simile, but reduced in size, of the first page of the edition published in the year 1470, at Nordlingen, by Walther and Hurning. The panel in the centre of this fac-simile represents the Annunciation; on the left is the Temptation of Eve; on the right is Gideon with the Fleece. The busts at the top are those of Isaiah and David; at the foot, Hezekiah and Jeremiah. This edition, like the one previously noticed, was printed in rusty brown ink upon one side of the paper. The adherence of the printers to a rough method of printing seems strange when we consider that typographic books, printed with black ink and on both sides of the paper, were then known and sold in every part of civilized Europe. Walther and Hurning were, probably, printers of cards and images who tried to compete with typography.[2] Incompetent to practise the new art, and unable to make fine books, they made a German translation of the Bible of the Poor, and tried to sell it to German people. The Nordlingen edition is an obvious imitation of the Latin edition previously described, but it is a very feeble imitation. The designer was incompetent to his task, and the engraver was clumsy. The workmanship of this book is one of many
- ↑ The Bible Of the Poor has always been considered as one of the most valuable of block-books, but copies have been sold at widely varying prices, as may be seen in the annexed statement, compiled from Sotheby's Principia Typographica:
Willet copy, 1813 245 guineas, Inglis copy, 1826 36l. 15s. Willet copy, 1833 36l. 15s. Lucca copy, 1848 89l. 5s. Stevens copy, 1849 11l. 12s. Sykes copy, 1824 18l. 17s. 6d. Rendorp copy, 1825 17l. 8s. 6d. Devonshire copy, 1815 210l. - ↑ Three typographic editions of the Bible of the Poor have been printed:—1. An edition by Albert Pfister, at Bamberg, in 1461. In this edition, the engravings are small and coarsely cut. 2. An edition by Anthoine Vérard, in Paris, about 1500. This edition is a close imitation, beautifully printed, of the first xylographic edition, with explanations in French on the back of the engraved pages and on supplementary leaves. 3. An edition of very different arrangement having 118 small wood-cuts, printed by Giovanni Andrea Vavassore detto Vadagnino of Venice, between 1515 and 1520. Berjeau, Biblia Pauperum, p. 17.
