Friday, November 16, 2007

bible title page, 1540

Tatiana C. String, “Henry VIII's Illuminated 'Great Bible',” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 59 (1996): 315-324, notes that Holbein's woodcut for the Coverdale Bible (1535) was superseded by that (artist unknown but probably Lucas Horenbout--which I think the world does not need to know) for the Great Bible (1540). Cool article: the 1541 ed. has a big circle on the right where Thomas Cromwell's arms are removed! (And, indeed, there is a colored version of same.) So the claim that the frontispiece to Henry VIII’s Great Bible was a Hans Holbein woodcut is probably erroneous. Thomas Cromwell ordered it purchased by every parish church in September 1538.

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