BIBLIA PAUPERUM.

[Opera nova contemplativa per ogni fidei Christiano laquale tratta de la figure del testamento vecchio....] [Venice: Giovanni Andrea Vavassore, c.1530.]

[Opera nova contemplativa per ogni fidei Christiano laquale tratta de la figure del testamento vecchio....] [Venice: Giovanni Andrea Vavassore, c.1530.]
8vo (149 x 95 mm). 51 (of 64) leaves (lacking title and colophon) with 103 (of 120) woodcut illustrations. Block book. Late 18th-century half calf and marbled boards, some rubbing. D2 with short tear, trimmed closely. Morocco pull-off case.
Provenance: John Rushout, second Baron Northwick (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, one of four issues (this Schreiber issue d) of the only Biblia pauperum printed in Italy in the Italian vernacular, probably the last Italian block book (Essling cites this as the only Italian block book). The Biblia pauperum ("Paupers' Bible") was a tradition of picture Bibles. It originated in Germany and the Netherlands. The illustration is in the center accompanied with only a brief text. "A number of the Passion subjects are copied from Dürer's Passio Christi, the woodcut Kleine Passion of 1511" (Harvard). Vavassore (fl. 1510-1572) was a Venetian printer, publisher, mapmaker bookseller and engraver active in Venice in the 16th century. Four issues are described in Schreiber's Manuel de l'amateur de la gravure ... au XVe siècle, v. 4 (1902) p 105-113. This copy resembles issue d in having E5 and H5 printed in round characters, but differs in that the Madonna cut at end is not surrounded by a border, but has side borders only, apparently corresponding in this respect to Schreiber's issue c. The Satinsky copy collates like the Rosenwald copy in the Library of Congress (lacking: A1 [title], A3, A7, B8, D4, E6, G7, H1, H2, H3, H6 [recto blank, verso colophon]). Adams V-229; Essling 206; Mortimer Italien 518.