Hans Krafft’s Monumental Wittenberg Bible in Princely Court Bindings for Hans and Barbara Harrer

Biblia germanica. Biblia, Das ist: Die gantze heilige Schrifft Deudsch. D. Mart. Luth. 2 volumes. Wittenberg, [Hans Krafft], 1572.

One of the supreme monuments of German Renaissance bookbinding: Hans Krafft’s monumental Wittenberg Bible of 1572 in two princely bindings executed by Jakob Krause, court bookbinder to the Elector of Saxony and the most important German binder of the Renaissance. Bound in 1574 for the Saxon chamberlain Hans Harrer and his wife Barbara, these immense volumes represent perhaps the grandest non-electoral Krause bindings known to survive.

Edition & Bibliographic Information

)(8 *6 ♣6 A–Z6 Aa–Zz6 Aaa–Zzz6; A–Z6 Aa–Zz6 Aaa–Zzz6 Aaaa–Hhhh6 Iiii8 = 20 leaves, 413 numbered leaves [of 414]; and 470 numbered leaves. Final blank removed from volume I.

Illustrated with woodcut title borders, a portrait woodcut of Elector August of Saxony, a full-page Creation woodcut by Hans Brosamer signed “HB 1550,” and 218 large woodcuts — mostly monogrammed “I.T.” and generally attributed to Johann Teufel — all in magnificent contemporary hand-colour, many heightened with gold. Hundreds of large historiated initials, mostly coloured throughout.

Large folio (400 × 266 mm). The bindings themselves measure approximately 410 × 290 mm, placing them among the largest known bindings by Jakob Krause.

Physical Description & Binding

Princely presentation bindings (“Fürstenbindungen”) executed “uf frantzosisch” by Jakob Krause and dated 1574. Brown calf over five raised bands decorated with gilt fillets and lavishly tooled with an extraordinary array of rolls, plaques, and individual tools.

The front covers centred with the armorial supralibros of Hans Harrer bearing the original legend:

“Hans Harr. Churfurstlicher Sachsischer Cammer Maister”

while the rear covers bear the arms of his wife Barbara Harrer. Volume I stamped “Biblia” and dated “1574”; volume II stamped “Die Propheten” with the same date.

The bindings are further distinguished by their elaborately punched and painted gilt edges, including painted heraldic devices incorporated directly into the fore-edges. The decorative programme combines Italianate cartouches, arabesques, floral ornament, and intricate Renaissance strapwork, entirely devoid of the overtly religious imagery still common in earlier Reformation bindings.

Though professionally restored in places — including renewed spines in period style and careful repairs to edges and leaves — the bindings remain visually overwhelming masterpieces of sixteenth-century German luxury bookbinding.

Jakob Krause and the Saxon Renaissance

Jakob Krause (1532–1586), born in Zwickau, transformed German Renaissance binding by synthesizing French gold-tooling, Venetian Renaissance ornament, arabesque decoration, and elaborate gilt-edge techniques into a uniquely Saxon court style. After training in Augsburg, he entered the service of Elector August of Saxony around 1566 as official court bookbinder in Dresden.

Krause ordinarily reserved his grandest “Prunkeinbände” for the Elector himself. The present bindings are therefore extraordinarily significant: outside the Dresden State Library, almost no comparably magnificent Krause bindings survive for private patrons.

The attribution to Krause is entirely secure. Every roll, plaque, individual tool, numeral, letterform, and decorative edge pattern corresponds directly to Krause tools documented by Christel Schmidt and Konrad von Rabenau. Even the characteristic inversion of the letter “N” in “Propheten” reflects Krause’s distinctive workshop practice.

Hans Krafft’s Wittenberg Bible

Hans Krafft’s great Wittenberg Bible was among the most ambitious German Bible editions of the sixteenth century and the first Bible printed by Krafft himself. The edition was equipped with more than 220 woodcuts by Johann Teufel, Hans Brosamer, and others, including scenes never before represented in biblical illustration, such as the mocking of Isaac by Ishmael (Genesis 21:9).

The imagery reflects the intensely politicized confessional culture of Reformation Saxony. Luther and Elector Frederick the Wise appear repeatedly within the illustrations, while the portrait of Elector August placed at the beginning of the Bible transforms the publication itself into a statement of dynastic Protestant identity.

The Harrers elevated their copy still further by commissioning lavish princely illumination with extensive original hand-colour and gold heightening throughout.

Hans Harrer and the Tragedy of the Saxon Court

Hans Harrer served as chamberlain and effectively financial minister to Elector August of Saxony. Through ambitious commercial policies he transformed Saxony’s finances from severe debt into substantial surplus and became one of the most powerful men at the Dresden court.

His career ended catastrophically. After disastrously speculating on attempts to monopolize the German pepper trade in Leipzig — damaging even the Saxon treasury — Harrer fell into disgrace and in June 1580 hanged himself in the silver chamber of Dresden Castle. The Elector confiscated his estate.

At some later stage the Bible appears to have suffered exposure to moisture, resulting in occasional staining and offsetting from the coloured woodcuts. Yet despite these traces of survival, the bindings themselves remain astonishingly preserved and among the most impressive Renaissance bindings ever to appear on the market.

Provenance

Hans Harrer and Barbara Harrer, 1574.
Inscription in volume I dated 14 July 1698 recording devotional reading of the Bible.
European aristocratic library.
Tenschert XL: Fünfzig Unica, no. 14.
European private collection.

Literature

BM STC German 90; Darlow & Moule II, p. 496; Delaveau/Hillard no. 134; Panzer, Entwurf, pp. 455ff.; Reinitzer no. 158; Schmidt, Illustration, pp. 274ff.; Strohm E483–E484; VD16 B 2778; Volz 1954, p. 158.
For Krause: Berling; Rabenau 1994; Schmidt, Einbände; Schmidt, Jakob Krause; Schunke 1943.
For Harrer: ADB 50, 19ff.; Foot I, 281–296; NDB 7, 702.

For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, lot 92:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II