Details

Object type

book

Title

Koberger Bible

Artist/Maker

Anton Koberger publisher

Place Associated

Germany, Nuremberg (place of manufacture)

Date

1483

Materials

wood, leather, paper

Dimensions

overall: 402 mm x 295 mm x 70 mm 4321 g

Description

German Bible (second volume only), commonly referred to as the Koberger Bible, printed February 17th, 1483, by Anton Koberger of Nuremberg, Germany (c.1440-1513).

Bound in a sixteenth century manner with pigskin leather, over wooden boards. The front cover is decorated with a tooled lozenge-shaped panel, enclosing a central floral stamp, and surrounded by four decorative rectangular frames, incorporating foliate motifs and biblical and classical figures. The rear cover is decorated with tooled rectangular frames, finished with acorn and flower stamps and repeated motifs from the front cover. Fitted with two chased brass and calf skin clasps, with catch plates riveted to the front board. The text is incomplete.

Printed in Nuremberg in 1483, the Koberger Bible was the ninth German-language Bible, following Johannes Mentelin’s pioneering German Bible of 1466. It is commonly regarded as one of the finest and most influential of the German Bibles before the translation of Martin Luther (1483-1546) in the sixteenth century.

The Koberger Bible contains some 109 woodcut illustrations by the so-called ‘Master of Cologne’. Originally cut for two earlier Bibles, these woodcuts first appear in Heinrich Quentell and Bartholomaeus of Unkel’s Bibles of 1478-1479, printed in Cologne, in two differing dialects of Low German. It is believed that Koberger may have partially financed the Cologne venture, perhaps on the understanding that the woodcuts could be reproduced in his later Bible, printed in High German. The woodcuts were of such quality that they were usable well into the sixteenth century, being used to illustrate the Halberstadt Bible of 1522.

The woodcuts, often printed across two columns of text, are larger than those seen in preceding Bibles, and their prominence, size and quality greatly influenced the composition of later Bibles and texts. The illustrations of the Apocalypse scenes directly inspired a celebrated 1498 series of woodcuts by Koberger’s godson, the artist Albrecht Dürer. The crisp and clear typesetting is said to represent two new German types specially commissioned by Koberger to print this work.

Produced in an estimated print run of 1000-1500, the Koberger Bible was issued in three versions, one containing uncoloured woodcuts, another sparsely hand-coloured in a limited palette, and a final ‘deluxe’ edition, such as this copy, which is hand finished with more elaborately vivid colours, and hand illuminated initials.

Koberger, who began his career as a goldsmith, was the most successful printer and publisher of his day, printing around 200-250 early books (incunabula), including the famous Nuremberg Chronicle (see 4.5). Koberger is said to have operated 24 presses a day, and employed over 100 workmen including, compositors, pressmen, illuminators, bookbinders and travelling salesmen. He also owned two papermills, and had branches all over Europe, including Paris, Venice, Vienna and Krakow.

In the sixteenth century this book belonged to the Carthusian Abbey of Saint Maria, Buxheim, Memmingen in the diocese of Augsburg. The Buxheim Charterhouse housed an impressive library, which by 1600 is said to have held over 700 printed books and 500 manuscripts, included a significant donation by Hilprand Brandenburg of Biberach (1442-1514). The monastery was suppressed in 1803, and the Buxheim books became property of Graf von Ostein, passing to his sister, Gräfin von Hatzfeld, in 1809, and then to a cousin, Graf Friedrich Karl Waldbott von Bassenheim, in 1810. The collection was dispersed at auction 1883.

Credit Line/Donor

Gifted by Sir William and Lady Burrell to the City of Glasgow, 1944

Collection

Burrell Collection: Books

ID Number

4.1

Location

In storage