Craftsmanship and the Bible
The Bible not only was the first book that was mechanically printed—the famed Gutenberg Bible in about 1455—but it also was one of the books that early printers most often printed. The two examples here show how the craft of printing developed out of the manuscript tradition, keeping some of the features of that tradition while incorporating innovative ones.
BIBLIA
Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1483. On loan to Raynor Memorial Libraries from the St. Francis De Sales Seminary. Gift of Hanes Foundation, 1932.
Anton Koberger (1440–1513) was a German goldsmith, printer and publisher who is best known for printing and publishing the Nuremberg Chronicle (1492). He established the first printing house in Nuremberg in 1470 and produced roughly 250 works between 1471 and 1504. His press was large—at its peak, he operated 24 presses and employed 100 workers in cities across Europe.
Koberger’s Biblia Germanica—the 9th German Bible to be printed—appeared in 1483, the year that Martin Luther was born. Koberger issued it in three states: The first was highly embellished, with finely painted woodcuts and illumination on some pages. The second is hand painted, with no illumination; the third is black and white. This example has illumination on the main painting, but not all woodcuts are painted. There are 109 woodcuts, some of which are painted. These woodcuts are those which were used in the Low German Bible, printed in 1478 in Cologne.
The Koberger Bible is also significant because it provides an excellent example of a 15th century book binding. Though different styles were used during this time period, the Bible uses a very typical technique, in which folios were sewn together on cords to form the spine, and cords attached to wooden boards to form the covers. Leather was then stretched over wooden boards and decorated with blind tooling. This was the most common decorative technique through the 16th century, which involved making an impression in the leather using heated brass tools. In the 15th century, binders would use stamps designed to be characteristic of their shops. Binding was the last stage in the production of a book, and books were bound at the time of sale, rather than before. In this way, the new owner of the book could specify the type and style of binding, as well as the quality of materials used.
BIBLIA SACRA LATINA CUM POSTILLA NICOLAI DE LYRA
Venice: Renner of Heilbrunn, 1482.
Also from the 15th century is a two-volume edition of the Old Testament, printed within a central text block, with surrounding commentary by Nicholas if Lyra.
Nicholas was born at Lyra in Normandy in 1270 and died in Paris in 1340. He took the Franciscan habit at Verneuil and after study in Paris was appointed professor at the Sorbonne. He founded the College of Burgundy in Paris in 1325. He published the first commentary on the Bible, printed in Rome in 1471. This commentary became widely available elsewhere, and the postillae were available in virtually every library. Nicholas of Lyra had an abiding influence, including potential influence on the work of Martin Luther.
IN THE MARGINS
Marginalia is generally used to describe not published notes (as appear in de Lyra’s Bible, shown in the adjacent section), but handwritten annotations made in the text by a reader. Much like the commentary of Nicholas of Lyra, marginalia was often used to reflect, mirror or expand on the main text of a page. However, commentary may also have been a printed part of the text, in the form of text, cross references, or even implied commentary in printed borders (such as that in the book of hours). Printed and written marginalia could vary from the liturgical, to the scholarly, to the mundane, to the scatological. Marginalia speaks to the desire to interact with the text, and can represent many “layers” of use in a book that is more than 500 years old. Different hands can make marginal notes identifiable as the writing of discrete individuals, though it is rare that we can identify names of those readers in incunabula. Through the use of words, symbols, and sometimes illustration, marginalia allow us to develop a relationship with the text through the eyes of a commentator.
WOODCUTS
Woodcuts are a technique used in printing where an artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood, leaving the parts to be printed level with the surface and removing the non-printing parts. Ink is rolled onto the surface of the block, and areas that are cut away will carry no ink, thus revealing the image.
Though the technique originated in China from before the Han dynasty (220), woodcuts were adopted in Europe by about 1400 and became especially popular in the latter half of the 15th century. Because woodcuts and movable type are both forms of relief printing, they were easily incorporated together. Thus, we see the woodcut as the main format for book illustration until the late 16th century.