In his “BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DECAMERON,” vol. i. p. 160, Dibdin tells us, “The earliest printed book, containing _text_ and _engravings_ illustrative of scriptural subjects, is called the _Histories of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther_. This was executed in the German language, and was printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1462. It is among the rarest of typographical curiosities in existence.” Dibdin’s dictum is considerably modified, if not set aside, by Noel Humphreys; who, though affirming, p. 41, that “a late German edition of the _Biblia Pauperum_ has the date 1475, but that before that period editions had been printed at the regular press with moveable types, as, for instance, that of Pfister, printed at Bamberg in 1462,”—yet had previously declared, p. 39, “many suppose that Laurens Koster, of Haarlem, who afterwards invented moveable types, was one of the earliest engravers of Block-books, and that in fact the _Biblia Pauperum_ was actually his work.” “The period of its execution may probably be estimated as lying between 1410 and 1420: probably earlier, but certainly not later.” The earliest editions of these _Biblia Pauperum_ contain forty leaves, the later editions fifty, printed only on one side. Opposite to p. 40, Noel Humphreys gives, pl. 2, “A Page from the Biblia Pauperum generally supposed to be one of the earliest block-books.” _Plate 6_ [Illustration: _A Page from the “Biblia Pauperum” generally supposed one of the earliest Block Books_]