994 - Holbein, H.

Holbein, H. Alphabetum mortis. Dance of Death Alphabet, reproduced in its entirety in 24 woodcuts based on the Dresden original, reproduced for the first time by H. Lödel in Göttingen, with marginal illustrations by the painter G. Osterwald, and accompanied by quotations from Holy Scripture and the Church Fathers. Cologne, Bonn, and Brussels, Heberle 1849. With a title border and 25 text borders by G. Osterwald. 3 leaves, 24 pages, 1 illustrated leaf. Paperback with handwritten cover label. Graesse III, 320. First edition. — A revival of the long-forgotten “Alphabet of Death” in a Christian spirit (the edition published in Göttingen that same year has a secular orientation). - “Some motifs in Osterwald’s borders are based on drawings and woodcuts by Hans Holbein. For example, the Triumph of Death on the cover corresponds to a title border that the Basel printer Thomas Wolff first used for the *Biblorum opus integrum*. Other borders correspond to the design for a Swiss dagger from 1523 or 1524.” - Copy from a southern German princely library.