Beschreibung:

Biblia Germanica.
Nuremberg: Anton Koberger 17 February 1483. Two parts in one volume, royal folio (370 x 260 mm). 296 ff., last blank; 290 ff., last blank. 50 lines and headline, double column, Fraktur type in two sizes, one eleven-line illuminated initial to incipit of part one, one 10-line illuminated initial to 5r, and two illuminated initials, eight- and ten-line respectively, to incipit of part two, all on a burnished and gauffered gold ground within blue or green and red borders and with painted flourishes into margin. Four- to eleven-line initials and capital strokes supplied in red and blue, some with scrolling on the infill and flourishes into margin. 109 woodcut illustrations with contemporary hand-coloring in green, orange, yellow, pink and gray wash, the half-page illustration of the creation of Eve (Genesis 2: 21-22) to 5r in a brightly colored mandala with additional blue pigment and on a ground of burnished and gauffered gold leaf. Contemporary blind stamped panelled pigskin with metal bosses and remainder of two clasps, stamped title to later calf lettering piece, blue edges. Condition: preliminary leaves wormed, dampstained and with fungal spotting extending to sig. h, affecting text at upper corner, the first four leaves frayed at edges, f. 5 remargined and with partial loss to gold leaf, f. 6 repaired at upper corner with loss to text, some marginal annotations shaved, part two lacking first blank, small tear to f. 294, ff. 296 and 302 reinforced, f. 296 with some loss to painted flourish at inner margin; pigskin soiled, mildly wormed and with tear near central boss of front cover, two tears to rear cover above and below central boss, front cover lacking left upper boss, one hinge broken, both straps severed, joints starting, pastedowns peeling to expose boards. Provenance: occasional ms. annotations and longer notes to f. 583v and final blank in a German 17th-century hand, the note to f. 583v dated 1667; Josephi… Dominici lib canoni de wisene (partly legible inscription to front pastedown); gedrucht 1483 (later inscription to front pastedown). Goff B-632; BMC II 424; GW 4303; H 3137*; Pellechet 2375. The ninth Bible in German, the first printed in Nuremberg, and the only German edition printed by Koberger. Koberger's was a seminal printing that set the standard for all succeeding pre-Lutheran High German Bibles, with woodcuts from Heinrich Quentell's Low German Bibles c. 1478 (Goff B-636 and 637), text from Zainer's first German Bible c. 1475, and types cut especially for this printing. This edition, of approximately between 1000 and 1500 copies, is known in three forms: uncolored, colored in three tints only, and fully colored, as in the present copy.