THEOPHYLACTUS [THEOPHYLACTOS, THEOPHYLACT].

In quatuor Euangela ennarationes, diligenter recognitae. Ioanne Oelampadio interprete.

      - Basel, Andrea Crantander, 1527. Small folio. Bound in a black half calf with gilt back (ab. 1850). A bit of wear to extremities. Internally a bit of faint dampstaining to upper margin some leaves. Last couple of quires with heavier dampstaining, mainly to margins, rarely affecting text. One leaf with a crude repair to upper margin, not affecting tect. Last two leaves with dampstaining to text-part as well. Magnificent, very elaborated metalcut title-page border (with Christ as Intercessor before God the Father, the Four Symbols of the Evangelists and the Mission of the Apostles), elegant and beautiful metalcut border to first leaf of text, beautiful metalcut initials throughout and a few beautiful metalcut vignettes, all designed by Holbein and executed by Faber - the first border is signed "IF" by Faber in the plate. F. (1), (9 ff. - Index), ff. 2-221, (1 f. - colophon). The fourth issue of the beautiful and rare Basel-Cratander-edition of Theophylactos' "Evangelia Ennarationes" ("Commentaries on the Four Gospels") in the Latin version by Johannes Oelampadio.The work is most excellently printed by Cratander in Basel, and the many metal-cut initials as well as the two metalcut borders (most beautiful and outstanding is the first, depicting Christ as Intercessor before God the Father, the Four Symbols of the Evangelists and the Mission of the Apostles) are executed after drawings by Hans Holbein the younger by the famous engraver and block-cutter Jacob Faber or Master IF, as he is known due to the monogram with which he signed his prints. Faber, or Jecques Lefèvre (not to be confused with the Renaissance humanist d'ètaples) which was probably his original French name, was a highly important block-cutter of both woodcuts and metalcuts as well as engraver, designer of decorative prints, such as initials and borders, and publisher. He was active in Basel and later in France in the period 1516-1550. He is most famous for the beautiful metal-cut title-page borders and book illustrations that he made to the designs of Hans Holbein the Younger, whom he worked closely with, in Basel in the 1520'ies.It is very likely that Faber is the executer of the very fist metalcut produced in Basel, as he was working for Froben at the time of its production, in 1518; in any case, Faber became Froben's main cutter in metal very early on. During the 1520'ies, Faber began working together with Hans Holbein the Younger, creating metalcuts made after his designs. In the very beginning, the technique was not very elaborated, and the earliest of these metal-cuts are a bit crude. However, Faber's technique quickly improved, presumably because of Holbein's growing interest in this technique and Faber's work, which meant that he began working with him, instead of merely handing over his designs. The Theophylactos "title-page border with Christ as Intercessor before God the Father, the Four Symbols of the Evangelists and the Mission of the Apostles" is made at the height of this magnificent collaboration and stands as a prime example of the metal-cut technique of the 1520'ies as well as the crowning achievement of the two artists, as it also represents the last metalcut that Faber executed for Holbeing in Basel (the metal-plate was made in 1523). At this time, Faber might well also have been influenced in his progress by the arrival in Basel in 1522 of the very skilled woodcutter Hans Lützelburger, who came with high technical and artistic standards.With the perfection of the metalcut-technique, Faber also influenced many other of the excellent woodcutters and engavers of the period, challenging them to refine their technique and spreading the use of the metalcut, which he had proven to possess an advantage over the woodcut, where the wood would sometimes break in the small, fine lines. The now renowned work "Title Page Border with Christ as Intercessor before God the Father, the Four Symbols of the Evangelists and the Mission of the Apostles" was first used [Attributes: Hard Cover]