The Elector Augustus Presentation Copy for Johann Pyrner in Bindings by Brosius Faust

Biblia germanica. Biblia, Das ist: Die gantze heilige Schrifft: Deudsch. Doct. Mart. Luth. 2 volumes. Wittenberg, Hans Lufft, [1558–]1561 [colophon 1560].

One of the most important surviving Protestant presentation books of the sixteenth century: the monumental Luther Bible printed on vellum by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg and presented in 1564 by Elector Augustus of Saxony to his financial administrator Johann Pyrner.

This is the only copy ever to have come on the market. The other surviving copies, two complete and one partial, are all held by institutions. Preserved in its original princely bindings by the Dresden court binder Brosius Faust and accompanied by an autograph sermon by Nikolaus Selneccer, the Bible embodies with unusual clarity the political, religious, and administrative culture of Protestant Saxony after the Peace of Augsburg.

Volume I: spine with a few small wormholes and minor damage at the headcaps; two fittings without vellum backing; clasps renewed.

It is preserved complete and as if untouched in its massive original bindings.

Edition & Bibliographic Information

Two large folio volumes (approximately 381 × 250 mm), printed entirely on vellum.

Volume I with an additional dedication leaf on vellum. Illustrated with a monumental historiated woodcut title border after Lucas Cranach the Younger, a full-page Creation woodcut by Hans Brosamer dated 1550, and approximately 170 further woodcuts by Georg Lemberger and Hans Brosamer throughout the text. Numerous historiated initials and decorative woodcut and metalcut initials appear throughout.

Bound in extraordinary princely bindings by Brosius Faust, dated 1564, in blind-stamped pigskin over oak boards with gilt decoration, large pierced brass corner and centrepieces, engraved clasps, gilt edges, and the initials of Johann Pyrner on the rear covers. Faust’s monogram appears on one of the roll stamps. Preserved in modern half-morocco cases.

Hans Lufft and the Luther Bible

Hans Lufft was Luther’s most important printer and remained closely associated with the reformer’s work after Luther’s death.

The present edition belongs to the great late Wittenberg Bible productions issued after the consolidation of Protestant territorial power following the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. The edition was already in preparation by 1558, though copies bearing the title date 1561, such as the present example, are distinctly rarer.

Lufft enriched the Bible with an exceptionally ambitious illustration cycle intended to strengthen the authority and accessibility of Luther’s translation. The title border designed by Lucas Cranach the Younger presents one of the defining visual programs of early Protestantism: the contrast between damnation and salvation, law and grace, divided by the famous living and withered tree.

The 170 narrative woodcuts by Georg Lemberger and Hans Brosamer give the edition an almost encyclopedic visual richness. Brosamer supplied the Creation scene, the prophetic illustrations, and the Apocalypse cycle, while much of the remaining material derives from Lemberger’s celebrated earlier work for Lufft’s Bible editions of the 1540s.

Elector Augustus and the Protestant State

The present copy is far more than a luxury Bible.

Inserted at the beginning of the first volume is an illuminated vellum dedication leaf recording that Elector Augustus of Saxony presented the work on 6 August 1564 to his Rentschreiber Johann Pyrner. Augustus states explicitly that he had several copies printed on vellum and exhorts Pyrner to read the Bible diligently and perform his official duties faithfully.

The dedication reveals the close intertwining of religion and administration within the emerging Protestant territorial state.

Augustus ruled one of the wealthiest and most highly organized principalities within the Holy Roman Empire. Fiscal reform, confessional discipline, and bureaucratic expansion proceeded together. The Bible therefore functioned not simply as a devotional object, but as part of a broader culture of Protestant governance in which scriptural literacy, obedience, and administrative service reinforced one another.

The symbolism becomes even stronger through the survival of an autograph sermon by the Leipzig theologian and General Superintendent Nikolaus Selneccer on the second flyleaf, dated Dresden, 5 August 1569. The sermon reflects directly on Psalm 119 and on the believer’s relationship to divine law and scripture.

Brosius Faust and the Dresden Court Bindings

The bindings rank among the most impressive surviving German princely bindings of the period.

Brosius Faust worked for the Saxon court and for the electoral financial administration. His monumental pigskin bindings combine powerful Renaissance ornament with massive engraved brass fittings and richly tooled roll stamps, several apparently unique.

The stylistic relationship to the work of Jakob Krause, who became Dresden court binder shortly afterward, is unmistakable. The bindings preserve not only their original structure and decoration but also much of their extraordinary physical presence, something rarely encountered in monumental sixteenth-century German bindings intended for ceremonial use.

Survival and Rarity

Van Praet recorded five vellum copies in the early nineteenth century, all in institutional collections.

Today the other surviving copies, two complete and one partial, all remain in institutions. The present copy is the last great Luther Bible on vellum and the only one ever to have come on the market.

Provenance

Presented by Elector Augustus of Saxony to Johann Pyrner, electoral financial administrator, on 6 August 1564. Later “German Collector,” Christie’s London, 23 June 1993, lot 49. H. P. Kraus, New York, Catalogue 200 (1994), no. 159.

Literature

Wunderkammer, Catalogue 90, vol. I, entry 29, pp. 250, 260.

Adams B 1178; BM STC German 90; Delaveau/Hillard 130; VD16 B 2744; Volz 1954; Schmidt, Illustration der Lutherbibel; Haebler I; Schunke 1943.