Luther's New Testament, with lavishly coloured and gilt woodcuts after Hans Holbein the Younger

[Biblia germanica - NT - Luther, Martin (transl.)]. Das Gantz Neüw Testament recht grüntlich teutscht.

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One of the earliest editions of Luther's German New Testament translation, illustrated with fine woodcuts after Hans Holbein the Younger, all in splendid original hand colour and elegantly gilt. The nearly full-page illustrations show the Saints Matthew (fol. A1r), Mark (G7v), Luke (L6v), and John (S4r), the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit (Z3v), Paul (HH2v), Peter (YY3r), and John (ZZ6r and Dd7r, repeated). While the 48-leaf index in the preliminaries has been omitted from this copy, all illustrations are present.

Martin Luther's first translation of the New Testament was printed by Melchior Lotter the Younger in September 1522 (the "September Testament"), followed by a second edition in December 1522. Faced with growing demand, other publishers were eager to publish the text in turn, and Adam Petri produced his first edition - the third in all - in 1522. In 1523 he reissued the work both in a folio version and an octavo format, in keeping with its use as a personal devotional book. Both issues used the same woodcut matrices, based on original drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger, for the illustrations of the apostles. While the large woodcut title border obviously had to be reduced, the composition remains closely similar, showing the evangelists' symbols in the four corners, Saints Peter and Paul flanking the title, and, at the top of the page, a shield with the arms of the city of Basel.

Rare; VD 16 records one copy only (UB Basel), not in OCLC. No other copy traceable through Rare Book Hub or German auction records.