The following is a fairly complete list over publications of Holbein's original woodcuts.
The Trechsel Brothers' printer's mark
1538: »Les Simulachres & historiees faces de la
Mort, autant elegamment pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginées«.
Published by Melchior and Caspar Trechsel for Frellon in Lyon
The first edition with 41 woodcuts.
1542: »Imagines de Morte et Epigrammata e Gallico idiomate a Georgio Aemylio in
Latinum translata«
Published by Jan and Francois Frellon in Lyon, who are responsible for the following publications.
1542: »Les Simulachres et historiées Faces De La Mort,
contenant la Medecine de l'ame, utile et necessaire non seulement aux malades […]«
1545: »Imagines Mortis. His accesserunt, Epigrammata, è Gallico idiomate à
Georgio Æmylio in Latinum translata.«
Translated into Latin by Georg Aemilius. This edition has 42 woodcuts,
since the beggar has been added. The beggar has nothing to do with the rest of the dance
but appears in a different section of the book.
1547: »Imagines Mortis. Duodecim imaginibus prater
priores, totidemque inscriptionibus prater epigrammata e
Gallicis a Georgio Æmylio in Latinum versa, [. . .]«
Now there are 53 woodcuts and the beggar has become an integrated part of the series.
1547: »Icones Mortis, Duodecim imaginibus prater priores, […]
Excudebat Johannes Frellonius«
(same as the previous one, but with a different title)
The Frellon Brothers' printer's mark
1547: »Les Images de la Mort. Auxquelles sont adjoustées douze figures. […]«
This edition has verses for the 12 extra pictures (»douze figures«).
1549: »Simolachri historie, e figure de la morte. La
medicina de L'anima. […]«
Italian version with 53 woodcuts.
1554: »Icones Mortis. Duodecim Imaginibus praeter
priores, totidemque inscriptionibus, […]
Basileae«
The title claims that this edition was printed in Basel, but doesn't specify which publisher/printing house.
The question is whether the woodcuts were really sent to Basel and back,
or if the place of printing was forged in order to avoid censure.
1562: »Les Images de la Mort, auxquelles sont adjoustees
dix sept figures. […] A Lyon, par Jehan Frellon«
Once again printed by The Frellon Brothers in Lyon. This time there are 5 more woodcuts —
or as the sub-title says: 17 ("dix sept") more
than in the first edition. From now on, no dancers are added.
1574: »Imagines Mortis : item epigrammata è Gall. à G.
Æmilio in Latinum versa. Lugdun. Frellonius«
The brownish pictures shown in the upper part of each of the 52 pages, are scanned from a little book,
Hans Holbein, Der Totentanz, Amsler & Ruthardt, Berlin 1922.
The advantage of this book is that it reproduces the whole expanded series —
including little boys and the
dance of death alphabet -
in high quality.
All these pictures — except two — are hyperlinked to much larger pictures
from either
Les Simulachres or Simolachri de la morte ,
showing Holbein's original woodcuts with Bible quotes and poems.
External links
The original woodcuts are incredibly detailed
The original woodcuts are incredibly detailed
inding Holbein on the Net is easy, but in the majority of cases
the "genuine" Holbein woodcuts turns out to be the copies produced by
Douce in 1833.
All their qualities untold they are still copies with inevitable
differences — particularly in the facial expressions. Finding genuine Holbein is a great deal more difficult.
The Internet Archive and other collections offer scans of various
photographic reprints from the 1800's. While they are not bad, the photo-technique of the 19th century leaves something
to be desired;
Google Books has many of the same boks, but the
books are badly scanned;
Bibliothèque nationale de France has scanned the original books directly,
but the scans are so bad they make your eyes hurt.
The Internet Archive also has several books from the 1800's with photographic reproductions of
Holbein's original woodcuts (use their search function and look for "holbein" or "dance of death").
The Bibliothèque nationale also has several old(!) original editions of Holbein that
can be downloaded as PDF.
Click "Recherche" to search, and "Télécharger" to download.
Unfortunately the scans are of a poor quality - no guarantees are given against eye injuries:
inding Holbein on the Net is easy, but in the majority of cases
the "genuine" Holbein woodcuts turns out to be the copies produced by
Douce in 1833.
All their qualities untold they are still copies with inevitable
differences — particularly in the facial expressions. Finding genuine Holbein is a great deal more difficult.
Dances of death
Holbein