{"product_id":"vergil-s-works-with-more-than-200-contemporary-coloured-strasbourg-woodcuts","title":"Vergil’s Works with More Than 200 Contemporary Coloured Strasbourg Woodcuts","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe 1517 Lyon Vergil in Its Original Binding, with Exceptional Contemporary Colouring\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVergilius Maro, Publius. \u003cem\u003eOpera Vergiliana docte et familiariter exposita […]\u003c\/em\u003e. 2 volumes in 1. Lyon, Jacques Sacon for Ciriacus Hochperg, 1517.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most visually extraordinary Renaissance editions of Virgil ever produced: the 1517 Lyon folio reusing the famous Strasbourg woodcuts first created for Johannes Grüninger’s celebrated 1502 Virgil edition, here preserved in magnificent contemporary hand-colouring throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe edition contains more than 208 woodcuts, almost all full text-width illustrations, coloured in rich differentiated tones by an early sixteenth-century hand. According to the catalogue research, this appears to be the only originally coloured copy to have surfaced on the market in the last century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Physical Description\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo volumes bound in one folio volume (approximately 325 × 218 mm), printed in black and red.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe text is arranged predominantly in double columns with surrounding scholarly commentary printed in smaller Roman type. Both title pages are printed in red and black within large architectural woodcut borders. The volume contains 208 woodcuts together with numerous decorative initials, all contemporary coloured by hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemporary brown calf over bevelled wooden boards on four raised bands, decorated in blind with roll tools and fillets, the front cover stamped in gold “Virgilius” and dated “151…”. The binding survives with its original brass clasp fittings, though the straps themselves are lacking.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVirgil as the “Book of Books”\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the Middle Ages and Renaissance alike, Virgil occupied a position almost without parallel among pagan authors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe was regarded not merely as the greatest Roman poet but as \u003cem\u003ethe\u003c\/em\u003e poet — a prophetic and quasi-sacred authority whose writings could stand beside biblical and theological traditions. Medieval readers interpreted Virgil as a herald of Christ and the coming golden age, while Renaissance humanists increasingly approached him simultaneously as poet, stylist, moral authority, and political thinker.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe edition gathers the complete Virgilian corpus with extensive commentary by Servius, Donatus, Antonio Mancinello, Filippo Beroaldo, Iodocus Badius Ascensius, and others, reflecting the immense philological culture surrounding Virgil in the early sixteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eBucolics\u003c\/em\u003e evoke an ideal pastoral golden age; the \u003cem\u003eGeorgics\u003c\/em\u003e transform agricultural labour into a moral and civilizing force; and the \u003cem\u003eAeneid\u003c\/em\u003e elevates exile, warfare, and state foundation into a universal imperial narrative culminating in Rome itself. Included as well is the immensely popular thirteenth book by Mapheus Vegius, composed in 1428 to complete the story after the death of Turnus and the triumph of Aeneas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Strasbourg Woodcuts\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe illustrations derive directly from the famous Strasbourg Virgil first printed by Johannes Grüninger in 1502.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat edition, supervised within the intellectual world of Sebastian Brant, became one of the most celebrated illustrated classical books of the Renaissance. The woodcuts famously translated antiquity into the visual world of contemporary Alsace: Roman warriors resemble Landsknechte, cities resemble Strasbourg, and pastoral scenes unfold like northern European village life around 1500.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the time Jacques Sacon reused the blocks in Lyon in 1517, many already showed visible signs of wear, cracks, and repairs. Yet in the present copy this becomes almost irrelevant because of the astonishing contemporary colouring, executed with remarkable variation and sophistication across the entire cycle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe colouring transforms the illustrations from reproductive woodcuts into something approaching illuminated paintings on paper. Blues, reds, greens, ochres, and flesh tones are applied with unusual care and differentiation throughout the volume.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Humanist Schoolbook with Personal History\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe provenance of the volume offers a fascinating glimpse into the educational and intellectual culture of Alsace across two centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early ownership inscription points to the Jesuit College at Molsheim, founded in 1580 as one of the principal Counter-Reformation institutions in Alsace. Virgil formed part of the essential philological and rhetorical training of the school.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eParticularly striking are the heavy annotations surrounding the famous Fourth Eclogue, with its prophetic vision of a coming golden age and miraculous child. Readers clearly approached the text not merely as literature but as something bordering on sacred prophecy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLater inscriptions document the book’s passage into private ownership. In 1686 the young Strasbourg law student Johann Caspar Bitsch inscribed the volume and underlined passages associated with virtue, labour, and moral discipline. The annotations preserve the traces of multiple generations of humanist reading and study.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJesuit College at Molsheim in Alsace. Later owned by Johann Caspar Bitsch (1668–1721), member of a Strasbourg legal family closely connected to the university. French private collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLiterature\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdams V 468; Baudrier XII, 344ff.; BM STC French 442; Brunet V, 1282; Mortimer, \u003cem\u003eFrench\u003c\/em\u003e 537M; Renouard III, 364f.; Schweiger II\/2, 1157.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see \u003cem\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/em\u003e Catalogue 90, number 39:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/heribert-tenschert\/docs\/katalog_90_vol_1_web?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"\u003eWunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume I\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46860528124092,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/Lyon-Vergil-1.png?v=1779489762","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/vergil-s-works-with-more-than-200-contemporary-coloured-strasbourg-woodcuts","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}