Biblia, das ist: Die gantze heilige Schrift des Alten und Neuen Testaments. Wie solche von Herrn Doctor Martin Luther Seel. im Jahr Christi 1522. in unsere Teutsche Mutter-Sprach zu übersetzen angefangen.... by Bible. German. 1710. Luther - 1710

Nürnberg: In Verlegung der Johann Andrea Endters Seel, Sohn & Erben, 1710. Folio (39 cm, 15.38"). Frontis., [32] ff., 1181, [1] pp., [11 (-1)] ff.; 1 plt., illus.

Aside from its importance in the religious tradition, Luther's translation of the Bible is probably the most important single text for the formation of Modern German. Like other Luther Bibles, this one contains his prefaces to the books of the Bible, including his theologically significant Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. It is also supplemented by the Augsburg Confession, of which, sadly, the last leaf is absent here.
    In this printing, a fine engraved title-page shows an angel delivering Luther's translation of the Old Testament to a Church still in bondage to the requirements of the old Law. A similar sectional title-page, depicting God the Father, Jesus Christ, and allegorical figures of the sacraments of Baptism and Communion, comes before the New Testament. Six special pairs of leaves, bound in at various places, each offer a first page containing an engraving of biblical figures and three following pages containing their biographies. A woodcut vignette of the unusual triple arms of the city of Nürnberg appears on the title-page; a number of chapters are adorned, at head, with one-third page woodcut illustrations set in neat borders; and the books typically open with typographically appealing two-column "headers." The text is in a handsome and relatively legible fraktur.
    The size, decoration, and overall composition of the volume, along with its faults (especially the manner in which which pages are worn), suggest a history as a lectern Bible in a Lutheran Church.
    Binding: This copy is bound in ornately blind-tooled and -stamped alum-tawed pigskin over wooden boards, the front cover with three of its original etched corner bosses and with its two etched clasp-catches. (Bosses of back cover no longer present, remnants of clasps.) A martial portrait is centered on each cover; unfortunately these are now so worn that they are no longer identifiable. Perhaps they belong to the electors of Saxony who safeguarded the Lutheran faith in its infancy.
    Provenance: Ownerhship signature of Ludwig Buehl, Philadelphia, 1852. Binding as above. Covers abraded and worn, some scraping to back upper board, leather peeling back from fore-edge of front cover and opening at ends of joints, most notably at bottom of front one. Front free endpaper with inked ownership note in German, dated Philadelphia, 1852. Frontispiece with a fore-edge chip (not into image) and tears in from bottom margin and at gutter, with small loss to plate area at bottom inner corner. A number of pages with tears extending into text, a few places with chips to bottom outer corners with loss of words but not of sense. Scattered foxing, with occasional darker small stains. Last leaf (of Confession, NOT Bible) lacking. => Despite faults, a grand volume both usable and inspiring.