Krauss's most famous work of book illustration

Krauss, Johann Ulrich. Historischer Bilder Bibel erster [-fünffter] Theil.

€ 1.500,00

Third edition of Krauss's most famous work of book illustration, first issued in 1698, bound with the second edition of his almost equally famous "Engel- und Kunstwerck" (a series of Biblical scenes with angels as protagonists). Modelled on drawings by Johann Steislinger, the plates run the gamut of the Baroque era's wealth of emblematic designs and ideas, showing Biblical scenes accompanied by short explanatory texts as well as elaborately framed vignettes. As frequently, the depictions of the Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden on plate 3 are censored, Eve's pudenda hidden under red pencil.

Wants the first title-page. Binding rubbed, extremeties bumped and chipped. Heavy signs of use, pages fingerstained and brownstained with some tears throughout, partly rebacked with paper. Closely trimmed without loss to images, but some to the letterpress preface. Pen-and-ink sketches of three faces by an untrained hand on verso of plate 14. From the library of the Viennese collector Werner Habel, with his handwritten and stamped ownership, dated 1984, to the pastedown.