Figures de la Bible, illustrees de huictains francoys pour l'interpretation et intelligence d'icelles

Book Description

Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1564. First edition. References: Baudrier, 9, 296 ("Les exemplaires de ce premier tirage sont beaucoup plus rares que celui du second"); Mortimer, French, 92 ("this edition is extremely rare"); Brunet, II 1255; Gültlingen 10, 147, #594. 8vo (17cm); 147 (of 148) leaves, lacks final blank leaf. Woodcut printer's device, and 269 woodcut vignettes of Old Testament subjects by Pierre Eskrich, of which 18 are full-page cuts. Bound in unremarkable 19th-century marbled paper over boards. Two centimeters of title page excised at bottom edge, not affecting text. Pages lightly toned with only occasional blemishes or stains. Light dampmark pervades upper margin. Extremely rare first edition of the bible illustrations by Pierre Eskrich, with verses by Guillaume Guéroult. A second edition appeared in 1565, identical except for the year on the title page; the companion New Testament appeared in 1570. Merging the separate traditions of the "Biblia Pauperum" (bibles in pictures for unlettered readers) and the emblem book (wisdom conveyed in pictures with explanatory verses), this volume presents the Hebrew Bible in a series of woodcuts, glossed in French octaves. The full-page images are copied out of Estienne's 1540 illustrated Bible (Schreiber, 59), and the smaller cuts were designed for Rouillé's 1562 Bible, and here employed in more popular form, as emblems. Guéroult's name heads the dedication to Catherine de Médicis.

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