Low German Cologne Bible
A.D. 1478/79
Facsimile
Soon after Gutenberg’s invention of the moveable type printing press, Bibles in the vernacular languages of Europe began to be printed. There were eighteen (18) different German versions prior to Luther’s translation of the New Testament in A.D. 1522. These were primarily text editions of the Bible that translated the Latin Vulgate into the German language. The Zainer Bible of 1475 was the first German Bible to employ limited pictorial illustrations to facilitate the visualization of biblical scenes.
The Low German Cologne Bible (Die Kolner Bibel; De Keulse Bijbel) was printed in 1478/79 by a consortium of printers that included the famous Anton Koberger. The text of this Bible utilized the Westphalian German language of the fifteenth (15th) century, with dialects from the Lower Rhine and Lower Saxony. The primary significance of the Cologne Bible is the elaborate illustration of the text, particularly in the Old Testament and the Apocalypse. There are 123 graphic depictions, in addition to both red and blue initials.
The Low German Cologne Bible (Die Kolner Bibel; De Keulse Bijbel) was printed in 1478/79 by a consortium of printers that included the famous Anton Koberger. The text of this Bible utilized the Westphalian German language of the fifteenth (15th) century, with dialects from the Lower Rhine and Lower Saxony. The primary significance of the Cologne Bible is the elaborate illustration of the text, particularly in the Old Testament and the Apocalypse. There are 123 graphic depictions, in addition to both red and blue initials.
