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 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 edition with 14 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.
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
Finding genuine Holbein on the Net is a choice between the lesser of two (or three) evils.
The Internet Archive has some very good scans of various
photographic reprints from the 1800's;
Google Books has a far better German reprint from 1903, but on the other hand, Google Books'
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, bad scans
of good reproductions, or terrible scans of originals.
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 printer's proofs
without the astrologer and without the 17 pictures that was added in 1547 and 1562.
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:
Dances of death
Holbein