Weimar Luther Bible from 1534
The Weimar Luther Bible is an edition of the first printed complete translation of the Bible by Martin Luther from 1534. It is considered the most prominent book in the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar and has the shelf mark Cl I: 58 (b) and (c).
Although there are still around 60 copies worldwide of the print edition from 1534, the Weimar Bible is unique due to the high-quality painting of the 128 woodcuts with blue, green and red opaque colors. Some of them were heightened with gold.
Client
Obviously, only a very wealthy client comes into question for such an elaborately designed book. Joachim Ernst Berger identified him in 1719 with Ernst the Pious :
" Ernestus Pius, the so-called Beth- and Bible-Ernst / Hertzog zu Sachßen-Gotha / had the precious Weimar Bible as a revealing testimony of his passion for the Bible and reading / at his princely expense / had it partially printed / partially printed. "
That cannot be correct, however, because the Weimar Luther Bible was printed as early as 1534 and painted out shortly afterwards.
The Bible print from 1534
For printing the full Bible, Christian Döring received an unlimited printing privilege from Elector Johann Friedrich of Saxony , which protected him from being reprinted within Electoral Saxony and from importing reprints elsewhere. However, Döring felt compelled to sell his publishing house along with the privilege on May 23, 1533 to three booksellers in Wittenberg: Moritz Goltze , Christoph Schramm and Bartholomäus Vogel.
It was printed in Hans Lufft's office . The second edition from 1535, which was subsequently added, was also produced by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg and is absolutely identical to the first edition in terms of text and layout (apart from the year '1535' instead of '1534' on the various title pages) (1534) and equally rare and valuable.
The woodcuts
The title page
Master MS designed a completely new, detailed title page that was reused for the books of the prophets and the New Testament and then adorned every Bible print up to 1541.
The illustrations for the Bible text
With the exception of the title page 1r for the historical books of the Old Testament, a depiction of Joshua by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1524), all other illustrations came from the monogrammist MS. The under-proofreader in Lufft's workshop, Christoph Walther, reported on the collaboration with Luther:
“Luther himself indicated some of the figures in the Wittemberg Biblia himself, how they should be torn or painted, and ordered how the content of the text should be copied and torn in the simplest possible way, and he did not want to suffer from being superfluous and useless that does not serve the text should smear it. "
It is interesting that the tiara on the head of the apocalyptic beast or the whore Babylon , which has since disappeared , can be seen again in the woodcuts by the monogrammist MS 1534.
There is a full-page picture at the beginning:
- 8v Beginning of Book 1 of Moses with the creation of the world (similar to pre-Lutheran German Bibles , especially the Cologne Bibles 1478/79 and the Lübeck Bible 1494).
The remaining illustrations, 41 for the Old Testament and 21 for the New Testament, have the same dimensions: 10.8 cm high and 14.7 cm wide.
The tabernacle and its implements
The illustrations in Exodus , on which the objects made for the divine service at the tent sanctuary ( tabernacle ) are shown, play a special role . They show things that do not exist in the reader's world and thus support the understanding of the text, similar to a Bible lexicon today.
- LIv The Ark of the Covenant , in the background the mercy seat.
- LIIr The seven-armed candlestick and the table with the showbread .
- LIIv A finished carpet for the tabernacle, presented on a marketplace from Lutheran times .
- LIIIr The wooden structure of the tabernacle.
- LIIIv The portable altar of burnt offerings.
- LIIIr The completely furnished sanctuary: the forecourt with the carpets hung all around as a border; the tabernacle itself made of wood planks, partly covered with carpets; in addition the liturgical implements.
- LIVv The clothing of the high priest .
It is noticeable that the objects do not stand in a desert landscape, as the text would suggest, or in the open air at all, but are framed by architecture from the Luther era, quasi replicas of the biblical devices and not these themselves.
The Solomonic Temple
The illustrations show how Luther and his team imagined Solomon's temple (with the cult implements) and Solomon's palace. They are an aid to the reader of the architecture description in 1 Kings 6-7 and at the same time show how the translators interpreted details of the text.
- CVIv Solomon's palace, enclosed by two city walls; behind the palace (green) the temple (red).
- CVIIr Solomon's temple with the two free-standing columns Jachin and Boaz and a Wendelstein as a striking architectural element, cf. Luther's translation 1 Kings 6: 8: " But there was a door on the right-hand side in the middle of the house / that you went up through Wendelstein to the aisle ."
- CVIIv The Brazen Sea
- CVIIIr The tank car
Lore history
The Bible is believed to have been acquired by the Anna Amalia Library in the early 19th century, as it received a library stamp after 1815. In the covers of both volumes there is an ex-libris that has not yet been deciphered. Information about previous owners is therefore missing.
World document heritage
For the inclusion of this copy of the Luther Bible from 1534 in the world document heritage “ Early writings of the Reformation movement initiated by Martin Luther”, which took place in 2015, not only the magnificent painting played a role, but also the history of the book. In the fire of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in 2004, it was literally saved from falling victim to the flames at the last second and remained undamaged.
Digital edition
- Volume 1 (Historical and Poetic Writings of the Old Testament): Digitized
- Volume 2 (Prophets of the Old Testament, Apocrypha, New Testament): Digitized
literature
- Hans Volz , Explanations of the Bible illustration by the monogramist MS, in: D. Martin Luther, Die Ganzer Heilige Schrifft Deudsch , Munich 1972, pp. 146–160.
- The Luther Bible from 1534 . Colored facsimile edition, 2 volumes and accompanying volume (by Stephan Füssel), Taschen Verlag, 2002.
- Michael Knoche : Journey into the world of books. Prints from the Duchess Anna Amalia Library from seven centuries, Böhlau Verlag Köln / Weimar, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Knoche: Journey into the world of books . S. 48 .
- ^ Joachim Ernst Berger: Instructorium Biblicum. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ↑ The other part of the Old Testament. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Woodcut: The Creation of the World. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Lübeck Bible: Hir hevet an Genesis. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Hans Volz: Explanations on the Bible illustration of the monogramist MS . S. 146 * .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ^ The other book of Moses. Retrieved December 14, 2017 .
- ↑ The other part of the Old Testament. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ↑ The other part of the Old Testament. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ↑ The other part of the Old Testament. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ↑ The other part of the Old Testament. Retrieved December 15, 2017 .
- ↑ Nomination form International Memory of the World Register: Documents representing the beginning and the early development of the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther. 2014, accessed December 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung: UNESCO World Cultural Heritage: Luther's legacy is part of the world documents. March 18, 2016, accessed December 14, 2017 .