Illustrated books -- Bibliography; Illustration of books; Printing -- History
At Cologne book-illustration began in 1474 with editions of the
_Fasciculus Temporum_ of Werner Rolewinck, from the presses of ther
Hoernen and Nicolaus Gotz. But with the notable exception of two great
Bibles issued by Heinrich Quentell, illustrated books before 1490 are
neither important nor numerous. Even in 1490 the edition of the
_Historia Septem Sapientum_ of Johannes de Hauteselve, issued by the
elder Koelhoff, was adorned with cuts obtained from Gerard Leeu at
Antwerp. Quentell issued a few stock cuts in one book after another, and
Johann Landen, Martin von Werden (if he be rightly identified with the
printer "Retro Minores"), and Cornelis von Zierickzee all used a few
cuts, some of the latter's having a curiously Italian appearance. But
the only important illustrated book, other than the Bibles, is the
Cologne Chronicle, issued (not to his profit, since he was imprisoned
for it) by the younger Koelhoff in 1499, with armorial cuts and a few
pictures of kings and queens somewhat too frequently repeated.
Quentell's Bibles in High and Low German are in curious contrast to all
this work. They are illustrated with 125 large oblong pictures, firmly
if rather coarsely cut, and full of story-telling power, several
successive incidents being sometimes brought into the same picture in
true medieval fashion. The book was imitated at Nuremberg and elsewhere,
and the illustrators of the Venetian Malermi Bible of 1490, and even
Hans Holbein himself, did not disdain to take ideas from it.
At Lubeck a finely decorated edition of the _Rudimentum Noviciorum_, a
universal history, was issued by Lucas Brandis as early as 1475, with
some good pictorial capitals, and pictures beginning with the Creation
and coming down to the life of Christ. In 1484 we come to a _Levend S.
Jeronimi_, printed by Bartholomaeus Ghotan and illustrated by an
anonymous artist whose work can be traced during the next ten years in
other books of Ghotan's, in several very interesting editions by the
unidentified "Poppy-Printer" (so called from his mark), including a
_Dodendantz_ (1489 and 1496), _Imitatio Christi_, _Bergitten
Openbaringe_ (1496), _Reynke de Vos_ (1498), _Schakspil_, etc., and in
the splendid Low German Bible printed in 1494 by Stephan Arndes, with
cuts which improve on those in the Cologne editions.
[Illustration: IX. MAINZ, ERHARD REUWICH, 1486
BREIDENBACH. PEREGRINATIO IN MONTEM SYON SARACENS AND SYRIANS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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