Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
survived printed on vellum and often illuminated for wealthy purchasers.
The paper copies, which presumably formed the bulk of each edition, are
now far rarer, and to students of book-illustration much preferable to
the coloured vellum copies. Good vellum copies with the pictures and
borders uncoloured, but with their pages brightened by illuminated
capitals and coloured paragraph marks, are the pleasantest to possess.
At the end of 1495 or early in 1496 Pigouchet began replacing the
woodcuts of this series of editions with a new set much more graceful
and less stiff, a few changes being made in the subjects. At the same
time he substituted new borderpieces for the old, among the new blocks
being a fine series of the Dance of Death, which were brought into use
as they were completed, so that we can trace the increase of them from
month to month, so frequent now were the editions. In 1497 and 1498
further additions were made to the large pictures by the addition of new
metal cuts with crible backgrounds for the Anatomical Man, chalice, Stem
of Jesse, Adoration by the Shepherds, Descent from the Cross, Death of
Uriah, and the Church Militant and Triumphant. By the end of 1499 new
crible borderpieces had been added, illustrating the life of Joseph,
history of the Prodigal Son, history of Susanna, Fifteen Tokens of
Judgment, Christ Seated in Judgment, the Cardinal Virtues, and woodland
and hunting scenes. From August, 1498, to the end of 1502 Pigouchet's
editions were at their finest. Meanwhile the cuts of his second set
were slavishly copied in editions printed for Verard. From 1497,
moreover, he had to face serious competition from Thielman Kerver, who
issued closely similar editions with pictures and borders by cutters
little, if at all, inferior either in technical skill or charm. On 5
April, 1503, Jean Pychore and Remy de Laistre completed an edition, in
which Pigouchet probably had a hand, with three very large cuts of the
Annunciation, Nativity, and Adoration by the Magi, and eight smaller
ones surrounded by architectural framework, representing S. John before
the Latin Gate, the Crucifixion, the Emperor Octavian and the Sibyl, the
Massacre of the Innocents, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Death of the
Virgin, and Raising of Lazarus, some of them showing strong traces of
the influence of Durer. From this point onwards the Renaissance spirit
became increasingly powerful in these prayer books, and while in almost
all their advances to meet it the work of Pigouchet himself, and of
Thielman Kerver, continues interesting (though the mixture of old and
new styles in their editions is often confusing), in the numerous
editions poured forth by Germain and Gillet Hardouyn, many of them
printed for them by Guillaume Anabat, and again in those printed by
Nicolas Higman for Guillaume Eustace, the cuts are very inferior, so
that they look best when most heavily illuminated. In a few editions
published by the Hardouyns spaces appear to have been left for the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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