Bonhomme Bible

Biblia sacra integrum
utriusque Testamenti corpus complectens.
Paris: Widow of Thielman Kerver [Yolande Bonhomme], 1526. (BRB1494)

Bridwell Library already held four editions printed by Yolande Bonhomme (ca. 1490–1557), the widow of the printer Thielman Kerver, when it acquired this book, the first Bible ever published by a woman. Yolande Bonhomme was the daughter of Pasquier Bonhomme, a printer for the University of Paris. She married Thielman Kerver, a highly successful printer, and when he died in 1522 she assumed control of his printing shop on the Rue St. Jacques in Paris. Following her husband, she specialized in illustrated Books of Hours, but the Latin Bible she published in 1526 demonstrates that she was able to take on expensive and challenging printing ventures. Her Bible of 1526 features four woodcuts inherited from Thielman Kerver’s stock, including the exhibited image of the Creation of Adam. This illustration is unusual in that it shows Adam both as a living man emerging from the earth and as a corpse turning once again to dust.

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Bonhomme Bible