{"product_id":"calvin-under-cover-jean-de-tournes-french-bible-with-bernard-salomon-woodcuts-in-a-monumental-royal-binding","title":"Calvin Under Cover: Jean de Tournes’ French Bible with Bernard Salomon Woodcuts in a Monumental Royal Binding","description":"\u003ch2\u003eCalvin Under Cover: Jean de Tournes’ French Bible with Bernard Salomon Woodcuts in a Monumental Royal Binding\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Calvinist Bible Disguised Beneath the Portraits of Henry II of France\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa Sainte Bible.\u003c\/em\u003e Lyon, Jean de Tournes, 1557.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the great illustrated French Bibles of the Renaissance, printed by the celebrated Lyon printer Jean de Tournes and richly illustrated with nearly 300 woodcuts by Bernard Salomon. The present copy survives in an extraordinary monumental contemporary binding decorated with portrait medallions of King Henry II of France — a striking visual camouflage for a discreetly Calvinist Bible printed during an age of growing religious repression. From the distinguished collections of L. A. Barbet and Maurice Burrus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Bibliographic Information\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThree parts bound in one volume.\u003cbr\u003eA6 a–z6 aa–ss6 tt8 A–Z6 Aa–Oo6 *8 a–t6 v4 = 6 leaves, 507 pp.; 442 pp., 9 leaves; 230 pp., 3 leaves. Printed in double columns with narrow marginal annotations throughout. Ruled throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIllustrated with four woodcut printer’s devices, 193 Old Testament woodcuts (including twelve full-page illustrations), and 98 New Testament woodcuts by Bernard Salomon, together with numerous historiated initials, decorative borders, and ornamental vignettes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLarge folio (380 × ca. 252 mm), preserving several deckle edges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePhysical Description \u0026amp; Binding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemporary dark brown calf binding incorporating the original sixteenth-century covers. Smooth spine divided by eight interlaced gilt compartments. Covers framed with double gilt fillets and richly decorated with floral and ornamental strapwork heightened in turquoise and gold. At the corners of the central lozenge field are large gilt portrait medallions depicting Henry II of France and allegorical triumphal imagery associated with Fame, Victory, and Wealth. The centre retains an empty cartouche surrounded by two-tone interlaced strapwork.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGilt edges and gilt gauffered decoration throughout. Preserved in a wine-red morocco case lined with velvet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe binding belongs to a remarkable Lyonese group of richly patriotic “trade bindings” produced around the mid-1550s, incorporating royal portrait medals and political symbolism associated with Henry II and the French monarchy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eJean de Tournes and the Religious Climate of Lyon\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJean de Tournes I (1504–1564), described by historians as the Renaissance Lyon printer \u003cem\u003epar excellence\u003c\/em\u003e, operated at the centre of one of Europe’s most sophisticated printing cultures. Having trained under Sebastian Gryphius, he established his own press in 1542 and rapidly became one of the defining figures of Lyonese humanist publishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYet the political climate changed dramatically under Henry II. The crown intensified anti-Protestant measures through increasingly severe censorship laws and religious prosecutions. The Edict of Châteaubriant (1551) required theological approval for all printed books and intensified surveillance of printers and booksellers throughout France.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJean de Tournes himself sympathized with Calvinism, though contemporaries emphasized that he was never fanatical or reckless. His Bibles therefore became masterpieces not only of printing, but also of confessional strategy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Calvinist Bible Disguised as Orthodoxy\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present Bible follows the revised French translation associated with Pierre-Robert Olivétan and Jean Calvin, yet Jean de Tournes carefully modified its appearance to resemble a traditional Catholic Vulgate. Calvin’s preface was replaced by that of Saint Jerome, and the Apocrypha were not visually separated from the canonical books.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese modifications acted as a kind of confessional camouflage. The genuinely Protestant elements survive primarily in the extensive indexes and annotations, where theological comments on terms such as “bishops,” “idols,” “purgatory,” and “vows” reveal unmistakably reformist tendencies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe binding completes the disguise almost theatrically. The large royal portrait medallions of Henry II — one of the most determined persecutors of French Protestantism — create the appearance of an overtly patriotic royal publication, while Calvinist theology quietly unfolds beneath the covers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBernard Salomon and the Renaissance Bible Image\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJean de Tournes collaborated closely with the great Lyonese illustrator Bernard Salomon, whose biblical woodcuts transformed Renaissance book illustration. Salomon’s imagery abandoned medieval allegorical systems in favour of a more historical, archaeological, and humanized vision of biblical narrative rooted in Renaissance classicism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Old Testament illustrations, originally conceived independently from the biblical text itself, create sequences that function almost like visual narratives. The New Testament cycle, meanwhile, follows the textual structure more directly. Throughout, the images remain strikingly free from explicit confessional polemic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result is a Bible that reflects the remarkable atmosphere of relative intellectual openness that still survived in Lyon during the 1550s, where Catholic and Protestant artists and printers continued to collaborate despite mounting political tensions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOwnership inscription on title: “Lamare Rouault 1588,” with some contemporary annotations and underlining.\u003cbr\u003eL. A. Barbet, sale I, 1932, lot 53.\u003cbr\u003eBookplate of Maurice Burrus (1882–1959), Alsatian parliamentarian and philatelist, who acquired the volume from Léon Gruel in 1937.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLiterature\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot in Adams or BM STC French; cf. Brun 127 (1554 edition); Brunet I, 890; Cartier no. 360; Delaveau\/Hillard no. 373; Ebert 2151; Graesse I, 375; Lonchamp, \u003cem\u003eFrançais\u003c\/em\u003e II, 53.\u003cbr\u003eBinding discussed in Hobson, \u003cem\u003eHumanists\u003c\/em\u003e, pp. 136ff. and fig. 107; Toulet 151 and fig. 128.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see \u003cem\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/em\u003e Catalogue 90, lot 88:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/heribert-tenschert\/docs\/katalog_90_vol_2_web?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"\u003eWunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46830041628860,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/p349_img01-Photoroom.png?v=1778887295","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/calvin-under-cover-jean-de-tournes-french-bible-with-bernard-salomon-woodcuts-in-a-monumental-royal-binding","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}