Master of Delft (1480-1498 Act.) Lot n° 1

Master Of Delft -Die mensche. Scriptura / Description: Scriptura and man : A man kneeling. A woman looks into the book, behind her a bookcase. She is the personification of the Scriptura, of the Bible. Christ as Salvator Mundi appears in heaven. (Banderolles with the text still upside down, that was not the case in later editions...) This is a full page incunabula woodcut, in fact the first and title woodcut of a very rare and early edition of Ludolphus de Saxonia, "Dat Boeck vanden leven ons lief heeren Ihesu Christi". This woodcut is discussed by Prof. Henri Defour in his article 'story of the woodcuts from the Ludolphus editions' DBNL 24/2017. The history of the woodcuts is very complicated, see an extract under 'literature'. It belongs to the very rare first edition or an earlier work that has not survived as described below. The fresh impression still with complete intact borderlines also emphasizes that fact. / Dimensions: 17,50 x 14,5 cm / Condition: Excellent impression with unbroken woodcut borderlines tipped with borders on a support sheet. Nice period hand coloring. Gothic Dutch letterpress on the backside in two columns. / Literature: Prof. Henri Defoer, history of the woodcuts from the Ludolphus editions. ( Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis 24/2017)… Ina Kok is of the opinion that an earlier edition preceded Leeu's edition of 'tBoeck vanden Leven ons lief heeren Jhesu Christi of 3 November 1487, which has not been preserved. She assumes that on the basis of the similarity of the second title woodcut with Mensch and Scriptura in the above edition with the title woodcuts in a two-part passionael, consisting of a winter and a summer piece, which appeared on 1 March 1487 in Delft by Jacob Janszoon van der Meer (ilc 1510, see figures 7 and 8) The maker of these woodcuts has been given the 'Second Delft Woodcutter' by Conway as an emergency name. The title page of both volumes shows a female figure sitting behind a lectern, with a bookcase full of books behind her. Before her kneels a man, looking up to Christ appearing in the sky in a mandorla. Above the woman floats a banderole with the text upside down: Dat Passionael, and above the man a banderole with the words upside down on one side: Summer stuck and the other time: Winter stuck. The Delft printer also used the same woodcut for his edition of the short redaction of the life of Christ by Ludolphus de Saxonia, which came off the press on 22 May 1488 (ilc 1504) There the words scriptura and die mensche can be read in the bands respectively. These words make sense here, since the text of the book largely consists of a dialogue between scriptura and die mensche. This indicates that the woodcut was originally cut for an edition of the Life of Christ by Ludolphus de Saxonia and must therefore be older than 1 March 1487, the publication date of the two-volume passionael. No copies of this earlier (probably also) Delft edition have survived, nor of the early edition by Gheraert Leeu, which Kok presumes....... The stylistic affinity between the paintings of the Master of Virgo inter Virgines and the woodcuts of the Second Delft Master is so great that it is generally assumed that he was the designer of the woodcuts of the Second Delft Master It can be concluded from this that the Second Delft Master is most likely identical with the Master of the Virgo inter Virgines.......( The Master of the Virgo inter Virgines was an Early Netherlandish painter and designer of woodcuts active around Delft between 1483 and 1498. He is named for The Virgin and Child with Four Holy Virgins, an altarpiece of the Virgin with Saints Catherine, Cecilia, Ursula, and Barbara which formerly hung in the convent of Konigsveld, but which is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.) / Medium: Colored woodcut /Circa: Pre 1487 280