$175.00
This collection of copper engravings by 17th century engraver, Frederick Hendrik van Hove, could have been bound and sold separately, like the one that was published in 1716 in London, or as a set of illustrations bound into a copy of the Bible as was our original 1715 Bible printed in Oxford. We have also decided to reproduce these engravings as part of our complete Bible as well as a separate book of biblical engravings. This set of biblical cuts was “intended to help the young ‘attain to the knowledge of the historical and most remarkable passages’ of scripture.”
What is interesting to note, is that although all the pictures are biblical in nature, only Jesus, Mary, and the disciples are dressed in biblical clothing. All the other figures are in middle ages/renaissance clothing, which would have been the modern style when the engravings were done. In one scene, there is even a clock tower with a clock in the background. This was very typical of religious art during this time, to make everything in the picture modern except the Saints and Holy Family. At the bottom of this page you will find a slide show of all of the copperplate engravings in these as well as our original 1715 Bible.
Since a large number of the people were illiterate, the pictures were done in such a way as so anyone who had heard the story, or event, would recognize it immediately. Usually, the image was drawn with the climax of the story largest and in front, and then the other parts of the story were drawn smaller and somewhere in the background, making one complete image. That way, all the points of the story were there to help the person remember what they were looking at.