Bible, German | Biblia, Nuremberg, 1768, fine contemporary binding, gilt and painted

Bible, German

Biblia, das ist: die gantze heilige Schrifft, Altes und Neues Testaments. Verdeutscht von M. Luther und auf verordnung ernsts, Herzogen zu Sachsen… erkläret. Nuremberg: J.A. Endter, 1768

Folio (465 x 315 mm.), woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, and 40 full-page and 8 double-page engravings by Johann Christoph Claussner, SPLENDID CONTEMPORARY CALF OVER BEVELLED WOODEN BOARDS, ORNATELY GILT AND PAINTED, covers with multiple compartments formed by interlacing black painted strapwork and filled with floral sprays, fleurons, and lozenges made up of flower tools, volutes, and acanthus leaves, both covers with a large central cruciform ornament composed of leafy stems; raised bands decorated with gilt rope flanked by rows of stars, spine lavishly gilt in compartments with floral cornerpieces and central lozenges within a black strapwork frame, gilt titling in the second compartment, original leather strap closures decorated in gilt and black, brass clasps and catch plates with figures of saints, turn-ins adorned with repeating rows of gilt volutes, all edges gilt and gauffered at corners and along spine, upper joint repaired at head, slightly rubbed

This handsomely illustrated edition of Luther’s landmark translation of the Bible comes in a majestic binding that reflects the text’s importance, not just to faith but to world literature. The binding is very similar to that on another copy of this work in the British Library (shelfmark c125k1), down to the “elaborate clasps” noted in the Database of Bookbindings.

The decoration here was a bit old fashioned in its day, the strapwork compartments with vigorous gilt tooling being more typical of the 17th century, but the style was still seen on German Bibles during the 18th century, as indicated in the above-cited item and in #359 of the Henry Davis Gift, executed at the Benedictine monastery of Ettal in Bavaria ca. 1725.

REFERENCES: British Library Database of Bookbindings, shelfmark c125k1; Foot, Henry Davis Gift, 2:359