Holbein's woodcuts

Editions

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. See external link further down.
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. See external link further down.
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«
1654: »De Doodt vermaskert met des werelts ydelheyt afghedaen door G. V. Wolsschaten, Verciert met de constighe belden van den vermaerden schilder Hans Holbeen.« Antwerp
A Dutch language book with 14-15 of Holbein's original woodcuts.

Resources

De Doodt Vermaskert. The final rest for the original woodcuts.

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, taken from Projekt Gutenberg. They are reproductions of the woodcuts that were produced for the publication of Francis Douce's book about Holbein in 1833 (see links further down).
Every page — except two — also has a link to a large copy from either Les Simulachres or Simolachri de la morte , showing Holbein's original woodcuts with Bible quotes and poems.

External links

Facsimiles

Project Gutenberg has an online version of The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein with some very fine reproductions of the woodcuts (the same as in Francis Douce's book, "The Dance of Death Exhibited . . ."
Alternatively, the pictures can be obtained from WikiMedia from the category Danse Macabre Holbein.
The Internet Archive has lots of books about Holbein
Google Books has even more books, but the quality is poorer.

Genuine Holbein

The original woodcuts are incredibly detailed

The original woodcuts are incredibly detailed

The Internet Archive has some very good scans of various photographic reprints from the 1800's; 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 that it makes your eyes hurt.

The choice then, is between good scans of decent reproductions and terrible scans of originals.

The Internet Archive has scanned 26 of the original woodcuts from the 1547 edition: Les simulachres & historiees faces de la mort, avtant elegammet pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginées
The Internet Archive has scanned books from the 1800's with photographic reproductions of Holbein's original woodcuts.
- Der Totentanz: vierzig Holzschnitte with a preface by Hans Ganz (This book is also available from Project Gutenberg). As the title says, the book contains 40 woodcuts, that is to say, those from the printed sheets without the astrologer and without the 17 pictures that was added in 1547 and 1562.
- The dance of death : the full series of wood engravings reproduced in phototype from the proofs and original editions (reprint from 1886)
- Les simulachres [et] historiees faces de la mort: commonly called "The dance of death" (The Holbein society's reproduction of Holbein's dance of death from 1869 with translations og the French text - highly recommended)
- Holbein's Icones historiarvm Veteris Testamenti. A photolith fac-simile reprint from the Lyons edition of 1547 (The Holbein society's reproduction of Holbein's Bible illustrations from 1869)
- A German reproduction of Les Simulachres: Hans Holbein's Todtentanz, Georg Hirth, 1903
Bibliothèque nationale de France has 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:

The beggar was introduced in the 1545-edition
- Les Simulachres & historiees faces de la Mort (the 1538-edition)
- Les Simulachres & historiees faces de la Mort (another copy of the 1538-edition)
- Imagines Mortis. Duodecim imaginibus prater priores (the 1547-edition in Latin)
- Simolachri historie, e figure de la morte (the 1549-edition in Italian)
- Biblia utriusque testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem (Holbein's Bible from 1538)
- Historiarum Veteris Testamenti : icones ad vivum expressae (Holbein's Bible-illustrations from 1539, the quality of this scan is more acceptable)