Novum Testamentum illustratum insignium rerum simulacris (The New Testament Illustrated with Remarkable Figures) [THE FIRST BIBLE ILLUSTRATED in the RENAISSANCE STYLE in FRANCE]
[Paris]: F. Gryphius, 1540. Two parts in one volume, 16mo in 8s. 199, [1, blank]; 136, [16, index]ff. "Novvm testamentum" in cartouche vignette at title-page, along with Gryphius' griffin device (Renouard 413); 90 three-quarter page (including repeats), and 15 smaller woodcut illustrations (including repeats); 21 historiated initials and woodcut lettrines; cartouche vignettes with book titles; printed marginalia; half-title for the second part (Epistles and the Book of Revelation). Text not divided into verses; occasional quotations in Greek. Later vellum over boards; manuscript title at the spine (faded); speckled paper endleaves; edges stained red. Light dampstain at bottom margins, extending up into text and gutter at the later leaves; small puncture at leaf 140 resulting in slight loss of text. A good, complete copy of a very scarce illustrated New Testament, with clean woodcut illustrations throughout.
Collation: a-z8, &8, Aa8, A-T7 (blank leaf [200]; lacks final blank T8).
Third Gryphius New Testament in 16mo format. Arranged in two parts, with the Epistles and the Book of Revelation presented separately, it reproduces the Vulgate text edited by Robert I Estienne for his Latin Bible edition of 1532. While some of the woodcuts appear in Gryphius' complete octavo Bible of 1541, this separate Testament is even more lavishly illustrated. Based upon Mortimer's description of the 1541 Bible, we can ascertain that at least some of the Apocalypse woodcuts in the present volume are based on Holbein, while most of the other illustrations, whose blocks had been completed by 1539, "are relatively independent of earlier sets" (Mortimer).
An important shift in Bible illustration occured in the Netherlands in the late 1520s as printers began to focus on copiously illustrated small format editions of the New Testament to better explain the text and assist private devotion. The subtitle in our volume, "cum ad ueritatem historiae, tum ad uenustatem, singulari artificio expressis" (with the truth of history, as well as beauty, expressed by a singular artifice), is clearly suggestive of this shift. Adopting this new format, François Gryphius became the "first Paris printer to illustrate a Bible in the Renaissance style," (Johnson, quoted in Mortimer). These illustrations first appeared in the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation in Gryphius' pocket New Testament edition of 1537, Novum Testamentum, additis picturis in Acta Apost. [et] Apocalipsin, quibus miracula et visiones exprimuntur (The New Testament, with added illustrations in the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation depicting miracles and visions). Subsequent editions would include an expanding suite of woodcuts, and were published at Paris by Gryphius under the present title in 1539, 1540, 1541, and 1542; Antwerp editions appeared in 1542 and 1545. The suite of illustrations in the present work is identical in placement and inventory with the data cited by Mortimer for the 1541 edition (90 cuts by repetition of 58 blocks from the larger set and 15 cuts by repetition of 6 small blocks), and confirmed by inspection of the digitized version of the 1541 edition at the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon. The only notable differences in graphic materials between the two editions appears occasionally in the selection of woodcut initials; the later edition also has several more unset initials (indicated by guide letters) than appear in our 1540 edition.
All editions are quite scarce, with only a handful of copies of each surviving.
Provenance and annotations: Old entries at paste-down and front endleaf of George Woodhouse (with his note about prior provenance) dated May 1875; E. Holwell, noting "This curious edition published in A.D. 1540" Item #49324
References: Cf. Deleveau & Hillard, Bibles imprimées (Paris 1539 and 1542; Antwerp 1542); Le Long/Masch 2.3 (1783), p.279 (Paris ed. 1542); R. Mortimer, French 16th Century Books, no.70 (ed. 1541, illustrating woodcuts on a3 recto and P3 recto, as per our copy), and no. 69 (8vo Bible, 1541). For a discussion of the development of the woodcut series in these Gryphius pocket bibles see: A.F. Johnson, "Some French Bible illustrations," Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1935, p.190.
Full title and imprint: Novvm testamentum illvstratum insignium simulacris, cum ad ueritatem historiae, tum ad uenustatem, singulari artificio expressis. Excudebat Fran. Gryphius, An. M.D.XL. Cum priuelegio Regio.
Typeface: Gryphius's own Brevier Roman or Petite-Text, with scattered Greek. (U. Aberdeen note via OCLC).
Price: $2,000.00