. Old picture books; with other essays on bookish subjects. s there are long stretcheswithout any pictures at all. Thus not only the firstItalian Bible, but the first Bible printed in Italy in whichillustrations form an important feature, is the edition ofMalermis version printed in October 1490, by GiovanniRagazzo for Lucantonio Giunta. If long delayed, thiswas a fine enough book to be worth waiting for. It is indouble columns, measuring 250 x 76 mm. apiece, and eachcontaining sixty-one lines of a respectably round type TWO ILLUSTRATED ITALIAN BIBLES 41 about the size of pica. For convenience
. Old picture books; with other essays on bookish subjects. s there are long stretcheswithout any pictures at all. Thus not only the firstItalian Bible, but the first Bible printed in Italy in whichillustrations form an important feature, is the edition ofMalermis version printed in October 1490, by GiovanniRagazzo for Lucantonio Giunta. If long delayed, thiswas a fine enough book to be worth waiting for. It is indouble columns, measuring 250 x 76 mm. apiece, and eachcontaining sixty-one lines of a respectably round type TWO ILLUSTRATED ITALIAN BIBLES 41 about the size of pica. For convenience of printingrather than of binding it is divided into two parts (thesecond beginning with the Book of Proverbs), which arealways, as far as I know, found united in a single I. contains: (i.) a frontispiece made up (within aborder) of six cuts measuring 56x57 mm. each, repre-senting the six days of Creation, obviously influenced bythe illumination with underlying woodcuts of the 1471edition ; (ii.) a pictorial initial N for the Nel principio of. S. JEROME. FROM THE MALERMI BIBLE. VENICE, GIUNTA, I49O Genesis ; (iii.) 208 small woodcuts or vignettes, measuringabout 45x75 mm., of which 199 are different and 9 arerepetitions. Part 11. contains a large picture and borderfor the opening chapter of Proverbs, and 175 small cuts,of which 166 are different and 9 are repetitions. Deduct-ing the repeats, but counting the initial and each of theCreation woodcuts separately, we have thus a grand totalof 373 different designs, almost all of them well drawn,though many have been sadly mangled by the wood-cutter. It is to the credit of the Venetian public that Giuntas 42 OLD PICTURE BOOKS edition of this big book sold quickly. For reasons here-after to be given I think it possible that a reprint withsome additional cuts was published as early as 1491. Weknow for certain that a new edition (printed again byGiovanni Ragazzo) was ready for sale in July most reprints of illust
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbibliog, bookyear1902
