Francfort, Christian Egenolff, 1537.
Small 4to [135 x 144 mm] of (39) ll. and a last blank, A-K4 (last blank); hazelnut morocco, covers decorated with gilt and cold fillets, spine ribbed decorated, gilt edges (F.Bedford).
First edition of this masterpiece by Hans Schäufelein (1480-1538), a pupil and assistant of Albrecht Dürer until about 1505.
Brunet, II, 780 ; Dodgson II, p. 14 ; Muther 913.
Pupil and assistant until 1505 of A. Dürer, whose style he adopted, not without talent. His imagination matched his knowledge and his works are very interesting. His first known work is the painting of the Retable d’Ober-Sankt-Veit, Altarpiece, the drawing of which was done by Dürer. Around 1509 he was in the Tyrol and in Augsburg. In 1515, he became a burgher of Nördlingen, which seems to have led to him being forbidden by the magistrates of his native town to return there. Some biographers say he died there. Among his paintings, it is worth mentioning Le siège de Bethulie (fresco in the Nördlingen Town Hall), Histoire de Judith (in Nördlingen), Retable Ziegler (in Nördlingen), La Cène (in Ulm Cathedral), Le Christ mort (in Nuremberg Cathedral), Descente de Croix (in St. George’s Church in the same city), sixteen panels on the Couronnement de la Vierge (in Anhaussen Church). Schäufelein did little engraving himself; he executed the drawings on wood. He illustrated the novel “Theueurdank” to a large extent.
This masterpiece illustrating the Passion of Christ is decorated with 73 full-page engravings by Schäufelein, a pupil of Albrecht Durer.
“Volume composed of 73 woodcuts, in fine proofs, 47 of which are marked with the letters I S interlaced and engraved on a spade, the monogram of Hans Schaufelein (Bartsch, VII, 244).” (Catalogue des livres du cabinet de M. Joseph Paelinck, n°80).
Each engraving is accompanied by a legend in Latin and German.
« First edition: others appeared in 1542, 1550.
Title in 10 lines, Latin in roman and German in gothic, with woodcut mark of Schäufelin (IS interlaced, on a large shovel) above the lower line. The book consists of 73 cuts, c. 140 x 102 mm, one on each page with the title in Latin above with Scriptural reference and the German equivalent below.
The series of cuts ends K2 vo…
All the cuts are by Schäufelein except the first (Annunciation) which is probably by a different, though masterly hand: 48 are signed with the IS monogram and shovel, and many are evidently adapted from the larger subjects by Schäufelein published in 1507.
Observe leper’s clappers on F3 vo. and H4: view of Jerusalem on H3, showing the mosque of Omar: stocks on I4.” (Fairfax Murray, German, 393).
A publishing success, it was republished twice in 1542 and 1550. USTC locates 8 institutional copies, 7 of which are in Europe and only 1 in the United States (New York Public Library).
Provenance : Musée Huth (ex-libris).
