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1556 German Bible , Item # GERC1251 .

1556 Edition of Dietenberger’s 1534 Catholic German Bible

[Bible in German.] Bibell/ Das ist/ Alle bucher Alts und News Te-/ stame[n]ts … Durch Doctor Johann Dietenberger … Cologne: Johann Quentels, 1556.

1556 edition of the Catholic German version 1534 of Johann Dietenberger (a key German work of the Counter-Reformation, preceding Johann Eck’s Bible), relying on the Catholic German version the New Testament of Hieronymous Emser, the Apocrypha of Leo Juda, the Vulgate Latin, and the work of Luther.

Small folio in sixes. A6: title-page and preliminaries. Title-page is printed in red and black with woodcut border, backed. Genesis begins on a[1] but only about top third of the leaf is present, fortunately retaining the woodcut of God creating Eve. Book lacks two leaves of text: [y5], folio cxxxi in Judges; and [O6] folio lxxxiv in Acts. Else complete: A6; a-z6; aa-zz6; aaa-zzz6; aaaa-vvvv6; xxxx4 (end of OT and OT colophon dated April 1556) (NT title is [A1] with woodcut, smudged at center and restored at foot); A-Z6; AA-DD6; EE-FF4 (Revelation ends on [FF3] verso, [FF4] mounted.

Illustrated with over 60 single column woodcuts and one double column woodcut. Revelation contains an additional twenty-one longer single column cuts.

General mild browning; occasional damp or other stains, or tiredness. First text gathering (“a”) tired and wrinkled, with restoration at gutter. Other occasional minor flaws, such as marginal tears, small chips (some repaired), etc. Very rare old underlining or notes. Some repairs, stains, or chips slightly affect text (e.g., [ii6] in 4 Kings; [ccc6]v and ddd[1]; [ooo5] in Sirach; [S4] in I Corinthians). Still, overall, very nice and in an ideal binding.

Johann Dietenberger (c. 1475 – 1537), a Dominican, attended the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 and, with Johann Eck, was chosen to draw up a refutation of the Protestant Augsburg Confession. He was General Inquisitor for the Dioceses of Mainz and Cologne. But his lasting “claim to fame” is this Bible version, especially in revisions. After the Jesuit revision of 1661 at Mainz this version became known as Die Katholische Bibel.

Contemporary German blind-tooled pigskin over boards, worn but solid. Remains of clasps. Quite a few later blank endleaves at front and back. Black fraktur MS spin e title: Schrift.

Not in Darlow and Moule. Not in BL. NUC locates only one copy of this printing.

VD16 B-2739 (Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienen Drucke des

16. Jahrhunderts ) ( Munich: Bayerische StaatsBibliothek).

Provenance: Chaplain Lewie H. Miller, Jr. with his ownership inkstamps on the front free endpaper. Rev. Miller is founder of the Miller Bible Museum and Hester Memorial Library, Greenville College, Tigerville, South Carolina.