INCUNABULA ILLUMINATED BIBLIA PUBLISHED BY JOHANN FROBEN IN BASEL IN 1491
Title: Biblia.
Format: Incunabula.
Published: Basel: Johann Froben, June 27, 1491.
Description: a.) First octavo edition of the Bible.
b.) Latin.
c.) Illuminated large initials and decorations on the title page and third leaf.
d.) Initial spaces hand-colored in red and blue.
e.) Handwritten marginalia and underlining throughout.
f.) Two columns with 56 lines, headlines, and marginal notes.
g.) 456 out of 496 leaves with two front, one back, and two pastedown blank leaves (the last gatherings A-B8 that contain the final queries are absent).
h.) Chancery octavo measuring 6.25 by 5 by 2.25 inches.
i.) 16th-century blind stamped pigskin binding that has been overlaid with early 20th-century black paper covers.
j.) Red colored top, center, and bottom edges.
k.) Binding in poor condition with rubbing and wearing throughout, the front board only hanging by two of the three sewings, spine absent, back cover detached. Text in fine condition with only a few of the first pages slightly detached and containing minor toning, leaf eight torn, corners creased on a few of the pages primarily near the center, leaves 444 to 453 detached, and leaves 454 to 455 attached to the separate back cover.
EXCESSIVELY RARE FIRST OCTAVO EDITION OF THE BIBLE AND FROBEN’S FIRST BOOK
Provenance: Previously sold over 100 years ago at Sotheby’s in July 1922. Accompanied with a handwritten note that contains a description and provenance. Froben’s first book and first octavo edition of the Bible is excessively rare and highly desirable. Three identical copies recently sold for $35,000 at Sotheby’s in June 2015, $17,500 at Sotheby’s in December 2016, and $15,000 at Christie’s in December 2017; however, none of these copies are illuminated like the present volume.
PREVIOUSLY SOLD OVER 100 YEARS AGO AT SOTHEBY’S IN JULY 1922, THE ONLY PRIVATELY OWNED COPY KNOWN TO EXIST THAT IS ILLUMINATED
Notes: Johann Froben (1460-1527) was the founder of a family printing dynasty which made Basel the chief center of scholarly publishing from the late 15th-century to the mid 16th-century. He strived to print a Bible that conformed to the 13th-century portable Bibles written in Paris and elsewhere. To keep the number of leaves within a single volume, Froben used an unusually small, but very clear gothic font, in today’s nomenclature of 7-point size. He called it within his preface “Bibliola” or a mini-Bible and readers commonly referred to it as the “poor man’s Bible.” The octavo format became very popular, so much so Froben printed a second edition in 1495 and there followed several others, including three Italian octavo Vulgate editions of 1492, 1496, and 1497 and Gershom Soncino’s Hebrew Bible in 1494.
Christie’s. Biblia Latina - Basel: Johann Froben, 27 June 1491.
Sotheby’s. Bible Latin - Basel: Johann Froben, 27 June 1491.