Dominic Winter Auctions
Lot 5
Holbein (Hans, the Younger). Icones historiarum Veteris Testamenti, Lyon: Jean Frellon, 1547, 94 woodcut vignettes after Holbein, printed one to a page with Latin text above and Gilles Corrozet's 4-line translation into French verse below, 4 medallion portraits of the Evangelists, title vignette, 2 initials, water-damage in fore and lower margins of quires A-F and K-L, colophon leaf (N4) and binder's terminal blanks frequently extending into text (the text partially disrupted in leaves D4 and K4-L1) and into the woodcuts on leaves D4, H3 and K1, repaired throughout with japanese tissue, small unrelated holes through images in F4 and G2, ownership inscription of John Evelyn to title page and his manuscript pressmarks and posthumous bookplate to binder's blanks (see note), recent marbled sheep, red morocco spine label, 8vo in half-sheets (19 x 12.5 cm) Provenance: John Evelyn (1620-1706; his ownership inscription 'Catalogo Evelyni inscritpus, Meliora Retinete' and cancelled press-mark 'In Chartophy. 37, [symbol of Jupiter] to title page, pressmark P and symbol of Mercury to binder's blank; a later pressmark 'K 3. 37', found on the subsequent blank); John Evelyn Library II, Christie's, 1 December 1977, lot 765 (bookplate); acquired by Desmond Burgess. Adams B1963 (under Bible); Mortimer French 16th Century Books 282. The second of two editions printed in 1547, with the fifth line of the title ending 'emendatiores', and the first line of the French text on L1r ending 'prophete'. Holbein's famous woodcuts first appeared in 1538. (1)
