Fully illustrated edition of 1498

[Latin Bible]. Biblia cum tabula nuper impressa et cum summariis noviter editis.
Venice: Simon Bevilaqua, 1498. (06141)

This Venetian edition of 1498 was the first edition of the Vulgate Bible to be illustrated throughout with woodcuts introducing each book. As this edition demonstrates, by the end of the fifteenth century, contemporary readers could consult a carefully edited single-volume Latin Bible that included extensive woodcut illustration, printed initials, chapter numbers, book headlines, marginal references, chapter divisions, and additional readers’ aids.

In the exhibited opening, the introductory woodcut elegantly illustrates the Vision of Isaiah (Isaiah 6): “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”