Estimate € 1,000 - 1,500
Sold € 3,500
Auction: 19 September 2023 at 10:00
[DANZA DELLA MORTE] - HOLBEIN, Hans il Giovane (1460?-1524) - Les Images de la mort, auxquelles sont adioustees douze figures. Davantage, La medecine de l'ame. La consolation des malades. Un sermon de mortalité, par saint Cyprian. Un sermon de patience, par Saint Iehan Chrysostome. Lyon: Jehan Frellon, 1547. A precious edition decorated with the famous dance of the dead drawn by Hans Holbein the Younger and composed of 53 woodcut illustrations whose execution has been attributed to Hans Lützelburger or to Holbein himself. To the 41 illustrations present in the first edition published in Lyon in 1538 with the title "Les Simulachres & historiées faces de la mort", this edition adds the figure of the beggar from a Latin edition of 1545 and 11 new figures by the same hand, which according to Brunet are really "aussie belles que les premières" (Brunet 256). This is the third French edition containing a passage from the Old Testament placed above each engraving and a French verse below; following is an unillustrated second part with various consolations for the sick and dying. 8vo (149 x 98mm). Printer's device on title, 53 woodcut illustrations (some mold stains on title and on the first leaves, lighter waterstaining throughout heavier at end, small wormtrack to outer corner of some leaves, marginal tear slightly touching some letters N2, occasional browning). Modern vellum, manuscript title on spine (bowed).
Estimate € 1,000 - 1,500