Merian’s great “Bilderbibel,” reissued in Amsterdam with English text for export—complete, finely bound, and preserving the full narrative richness of the seventeenth century’s most influential engraved Bible cycle.

962J.  Merian, Matthäus  1593-1650


Icones Biblicæ, praecipuas sacræ scripturæ historias eleganter et graphicè representantes.= : Biblische figuren, darinnen die furnemsten historien in Heiliger Schrift begriffen geschichtmessig entworsse zyn. = Figures de la Bible, demonstrant les principales histoires de la Saincte Escriture. = Bybel Printen vertonende de voornaemste historien en afbeeldsels der Heyliger Schrifture. = Figgers of the Bible in who almost euery history of the Holy Schriptures are described. (Multiple languages; Text in Latin, French, German, English, and Dutch)

‘t Amsterdam: By Cornel : Dankertz, 1648

‘t Amsterdam : By Danckert Danckertsz. Const-en Caert-verkooper, in de Kalver-straet, in de Danck-baerheyt,1659                     Price $ 16,000 (on Hold)

Oblong quarto: 14 x 18.5 cm.   Signatures: A-2T⁴ [A]3  B-X⁴ [Y]1. Complete +, Complete expanded Amsterdam issue, comprising 251 full-page engraved plates after Matthäus Merian, exceeding the approximately 230–233 plates of the original Frankfurt series, and reflecting the augmented program of the Danckerts workshop. The engravings, though closely derived from Merian’s compositions, are unsigned and were likely executed by anonymous engravers working within the Amsterdam print trade.

Finely bound in an early 20th-century French brown morocco, the covers richly gilt in a dense pointillé field of repeated fleur-de-lys tools within a wide ornamental border incorporating shell and foliate cornerpieces, enclosing a central oval reserve. The spine in compartments with raised bands, each panel gilt with fleur-de-lys and scrolling tools, lettered in gilt on a black morocco label (“Figures de la Bible”). Board edges gilt with a decorative roll; turn-ins elaborately gilt with dentelle.

The pastedowns and free endpapers of marbled paper in a bold swirling pattern of blue, red, yellow, and cream, characteristic of high-quality French atelier work of the early twentieth century. All edges gauffered and hand-colored in a repeating floral pattern in red, blue, and gilt.

An elegant and cohesive decorative binding, expertly executed and well preserved, with only light rubbing at extremities—clearly a bespoke antiquarian binding produced to present the work as a finished luxury object.

The 251 engraved plates that comprise this Amsterdam issue represent one of the most ambitious and widely disseminated cycles of biblical illustration of the seventeenth century, derived from the celebrated Frankfurt series of Matthäus Merian the Elder but here expanded and reissued for an international audience.

Executed in clear, confident line and printed with strong, even impressions, the engravings are remarkable for their narrative clarity and compositional intelligence. Each plate presents a self-contained biblical episode—often incorporating multiple moments within a single scene—so that the unfolding of sacred history is rendered both sequentially and visually immediate. Landscapes, architecture, and gesture are all pressed into service of storytelling: cities rise in the distance, interiors are opened to the viewer, and figures are arranged to guide the eye across the action.

Unlike earlier woodcut traditions, these copper engravings allow for a finer descriptive range. Details of costume, weaponry, vegetation, and built environment are rendered with precision, situating biblical events within a visual language that would have been legible and compelling to a seventeenth-century viewer. At the same time, the compositions avoid excess ornament or theatricality, maintaining a directness that reinforces their didactic purpose.

The present Amsterdam edition preserves and extends this visual program. While closely derived from Merian’s original designs, the plates were re-engraved within the Danckerts workshop and supplemented to form an expanded cycle of 251 images, exceeding the Frankfurt series and offering a more continuous pictorial narrative from Genesis through the Apocalypse. The accompanying captions—Dutch beneath the image and English on the facing verso—further emphasize the book’s function as a practical, multilingual vehicle for scriptural instruction.

Jamesgray2@me.com