V.

15th and 16th Centuries

The first illustrated book with a text printed from movable type was probably Ulrich Boner's Edelstein, printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg, Germany, in 1461. Collections of Aesop's fables were among the earliest books to be illustrated after the invention of printing; the first illustrated Aesop, printed by Johann Zainer in Ulm, Germany, in 1476, exerted an enormous influence on subsequent illustrated works. Noteworthy illustrated Bibles were produced in Cologne (1478) and Lübeck (1494). The first illustrated book printed in England was The Mirrour of the World (1481) by the author-printer William Caxton. Other important illustrated books of the 15th century include Danse macabre des hommes (Dance of Death, 1485); The Nürnberg Chronicle (1493), with more than 1800 woodcuts; Der Ritter vom Turn (The Knight from Turn, 1493), with woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer; and Francesco de Colonna's Hypnerotomachia poliphili (The Strife of Love in a Dream, 1499), printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice, Italy, and considered the greatest of all early woodcut-illustrated books. The first book illustrated with copperplate engravings was De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (Fall of Princes, Brugge, 1476) by Giovanni Boccaccio. One of the finest early books with engraved illustrations was The Divine Comedy (1481) by Dante, with engravings by Baccio Baldini after drawings by Sandro Botticelli. It has been estimated that in the incunabula period (that is, the first half-century after the invention of printing) some one-third of all printed books were illustrated.

In the 16th century, as printing spread, illustrated books proliferated. Among significant examples were the following: in Italy, Gabriele Giolito's edition of Petrarch (1544) and Giovanni Verdizotti's Cento favole (The Hundred Fables, 1570); in Germany, Otto Brunfels's herbal (1530), probably the first book in which the illustrator (Hans Weiditz) is given credit, Martin Luther's Bible (1534) illustrated by Lucas Cranach, and Iconographia Regum Francorum (The Frankish Kings, 1576) illustrated by Virgil Solis and Jost Amman; in Switzerland, the Dance of Death (1538) illustrated by Hans Holbein the Younger; in the Low Countries, a Bible (1528) illustrated by Jan Swart and Lucas van Leyden, and the great Flemish printer Christophe Plantin's polyglot Bible (containing several versions in different languages) of 1568; in France, a Book of Hours (1525) illustrated by Geofroy Tory, and L'apocalypse figurée (The Illustrated Apocalypse, 1561), with engravings by Jean Duvet; in England, an edition of Vesalius (1545) illustrated by Geminus, and Foxe's Book of Martyrs, issued by the printer John Day in 1563.