[Incunabula] Quentell, Heinrich (printer)Biblia (in West Low German, With Glosses According to Nicolaus de Lyra's Postils)(Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, about 1478-79). Part one (of two) only. Folio (415 x 295 mm). 264 (of 270) leaves, lacking initial blank, leaves 1, 2, 3, 268, and 269 (as compared with copies in Boston Public Library, University and City Library Cologne, and University and State Library of Dusseldorf). 57 lines, double column, plus headlines. Gothic type (type: 1:102G). Initials rubricated in red and blue ink, some with extended and elaborately decorated marginal flourishes. Profusely illustrated with 89 black and white in-text woodcuts, as well as one large woodcut at front depicting Eve's creation. Full contemporary calf over wooden boards, elaborately stamped in blind with cross-hatching and fleur de lis pattern, boards worn and blistered, clasps and bosses wanting, calf on rear board partially torn away; spine perished, cords exposed but very much intact; fore-edge margin of leaf 151 cut away, not affecting text; repaired closed tear in bottom edge of leaves 167 and 169; short closed tear in bottom edge of leaf 168; leaves 69v and 70r darkened; scattered soiling and ink staining, mostly affecting margins but occasionally extending into text; some rubricated initials affected by damp and faded; scattered marginalia; old catalogue description of this copy on front paste-down. Book-plate of the Doctor Jeremiah Zimmerman Library, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa., on front paste-down; gift inscription to library from Zimmerman in MS on same. ISTC ib00637000; Goff B637; GW 4308; BMC I 264.In 1478-79, German printer Heinrich Quentell produced one of the most influential bibles of the early hand press period. A monument of early German printing, this work is renowned for its woodcut illustrations (often attributed to the "Master of the Cologne Bibles"), and it would "set the style of Biblical illustration for many years to come" (p. 108. Bland, A History of Book Illustration). The woodcuts would go on to be used in Anton Koberger's Nuremberg Bible in 1493, and influence numerous bibles in Venice, Strasbourg, Lubeck, and finally appearing in the Halberstadt Bible of 1522. In addition to this copy in West Low German dialect, he simultaneously produced one in Low Saxon dialect. Only one other copy of the first part appears in the auction record. Rare.PROVENANCE:Rev. Dr. Jeremiah ZimmermanUnited Lutheran Seminary