Highlights of the Exhibition
The Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Bible Collection
at
Bridwell Library
1996-2006
September 7-November 18, 2006  

Early Octavo Edition of the Bible

Biblia latina. Basel: Johann Froben, 27 October 1495.

Johann Froben printed the first pocket-sized octavo Latin Bible at Basel in 1491 ― the so-called “Poor man’s Bible.” He completed another edition in this small format (Median paper folded three times) on 27 October 1495. Convenient to carry and easily affordable, this edition combined several user-friendly features that Froben advertised on his title page. This was the earliest Latin Bible to bear a woodcut frontispiece. Based on a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, it faces the opening of St. Jerome’s introductory letter to Paulinus. Here, the translator of the Vulgate turns from his work to pull a thorn from the paw of his fabled companion, the lion. On his desk are the texts of his Prologue to the Pentateuch and Latin and Greek (Septuagint) versions of Genesis 1:1.
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