[Froben]

Biblia Sacra 1491

      Johann Froben Y 494 leaves out of 496. Lacks A1 (blank except 2 line title) and final blank. 56 lines to a page. Double columned text. Gothic letter. Three to five line initial spaces with printed guides. Some initials supplied in red ink. First large initial in sliver and red with green and brown extensions. Red initial strokes. Some very early neat underscoring. Two quires bound the wrong wa round. Leaf P2 torn. An excellent copy. Contemporary annotations on final two leaves. Contemporary elaborate blind stamped calf over bevelled wooden boards. Central panel of repeated floral tooling enclosed bands, retaining old leather. Dark green label. Remains of hasp marks. Hain 3114; BL Cat 1A 37873. Froben was a learned German printer who opened an office in Basel in 1491 from which he issued a Latin Bible. This is the earliest Latin Bible printed in Octavo. This edition, because of its small size was known as the Poor Man's Bible, though not many poor men could afford it. Froben was intimately connected with Erasmus whose famous Greek Testament so powerfully affected the history of the Protestant Reformation and the evolution of the Protestant Bible. This 1491 'Poor Man's Bible' seems to have been one of the earliest editions of the Scriptures in which references to parallel passages are given throughout the volume. Fine