BYBELS LUSTHOF

Amsterdam: Jan Klooster, 1754. Second Edition. 195 x 153 mm. (7 5/8 x 6"). 2 p.l., 120 pp.; 1 p.l., 120 pp.
Contemporary stiff vellum, smooth spine with (faded) ink titling. WITH 240 WOODCUTS (120 for the Old and 120 for the New Testaments) by Christoffel van Sichem. See Lehmann-Haupt, "An Introduction to the Woodcut of the 17th Century," p. 49. ◆Slightly splayed, vellum a little soiled and with minor wear, but the unpretentious binding solid and perfectly okay. Faint browning and foxing because of quality of paper, but surprisingly fresh and clean for a book one would normally expect to show obvious signs of use.

This is a very pleasing copy of a Dutch children's Bible, first issued in 1743, in which illustrations and rhyming verses acquaint young readers with key stories from Scripture in a format that is as pleasant as it is educational. The title here literally translates as "Biblical Pleasure Garden," and the contents bring this appellation to life. The volume's richly detailed and engrossing woodcuts are paired with both the text from the Dutch Bible and with the easier to remember rhyming verses by B. Blens, all of these elements working to interpret the Scripture in everyday language young people can understand. First appearing in a folio Bible printed in 1646, the diverting illustrations are by Christoffel van Sichem the younger (1581-1658). The son and namesake of a Dutch printmaker and publisher, Christoffel was the outstanding member of a Dutch Catholic engraving and printing dynasty that provided illustrations used in books and sold as individual prints. Although Christoffel the younger was trained by his father, Lehmann-Haupt finds that there "is a gracefulness, a narrative, illustrative inventiveness about the woodcuts of Christoffel II that surpasses the works of his father" and suggests that the son's "woodcuts, which are all cut without crosshatching, tend to run to smaller, more intimate formats" as a reflection "of the son's more bookish inclinations." The images here are full of charm and animation (for example, the household of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, is as chaotic and lively as the domestic scenes of Dutch master Jan Steen), and they are frequently quite dramatic--the depictions of the Apocalypse no doubt inspired many childhood nightmares. The latter were based on Durer's Apocalypse series, and contain his initials as well as those of Christoffel. This work is not rare, but it is seldom encountered in decent condition, and often appears incomplete..