IMPRESSIVE RUBRICATED FOLIO INCUNABLE LATIN BIBLE, FROM THE EMINENT PRESS OF ANTON KOBERGER, 1480, IN FULL CONTEMPORARY PIGSKIN OVER WOODEN BOARDS

BIBLE. Biblia Latina. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, April 14, 1480. Thick folio (11 by 13-1/2 inches), late sixteenth-century elaborately paneled and blind-tooled pigskin over wooden boards sympathetically rebacked at an early date, raised bands, brown morocco spine labels, beveled edges. 468 leaves, foliated: [1], i-cccclxi, [6]. Housed in custom clamshell box.

Incunable Vulgate from the celebrated Nuremberg press of Anton Koberger, finely printed on vellum, complete and with numerous red and blue initials done by hand, bound in full 16th-century paneled and blind-tooled pigskin.

The fourth-century ascetic priest and scholar Jerome “devoted himself to the work that would be his great literary monument: the translation of the Bible into Latin… Jerome’s version, the Vulgate, eventually became the standard Bible of the entire Latin-speaking church” (González I:204); its supremacy would face no serious challenge until the earliest medieval reformers’ vernacular translation efforts. This incunable Vulgate hails from the press of Anton Koberger, who began printing about 1470, building his house to 24 presses by 1509 and establishing distribution channels in seven major European cities. By 1480, the year this Bible saw print, his press “had already outstripped Schöffer of Mainz, and, until practically the end of the 15th century, was the most important printing house in the world… Koberger used 24 presses a day for his printing and employed over a hundred workmen. His publications demonstrate the generous plan on which his work was done. The paper will still outlast centuries. The type is almost entirely cut in Gothic form, is strong and carefully designed and, in spite of its narrowness, gives a good, readable round script, which was later very widely used” (Catholic Encyclopedia). Koberger published “no less than 15 impressions of the Biblia Latina,” the earliest appearing in 1477 (Putnam II:158). In two columns of 51 lines each with head lines, with initial letters done by hand in red or blue. Includes Menardus Monachus’ additions. Hain-Copinger 3076. Early owner signature, marginalia, extensive annotations concerning heretical sects to recto of final leaf and rear pastedown. Occasional tiny fore-edge tabs. Library blindstamp to first two leaves (Haverhill Public Library).

Occasional light finger soiling; light dampstaining to upper corner of approximately final hundred leaves, causing occasional offset from rubrications. Very minor worming to final few leaves. Short marginal closed tear toward gutter of leaf 27; closed tear to leaf 215, affecting text. First leaf and leaf 11 rehinged; repair to verso of penultimate leaf. Mild age-wear to 16th-century binding. Without clasps and catches. An impressive incunable Bible from the renowned Koberger press.