Le Miroir de la rédemption de l’humain lignage, 1483. Lyon. Mathias Huss.
The first illustrated book printed in France, a Mirror of Human life
The fourth edition of “the first illustrated book printed in France” (Claudin), incredibly rare, this is one of 20 copies known of any of the first five editions, several of which are damaged or incomplete. This is one of the most lavishly illustrated incunables printed in France, it contains 257 woodcuts, the first two enhanced in red: “the 257 woodcuts in this book are from the blocks used by Richel at Basel in his edition of the German version entitled Spiegel der menschlichen Behaltnis, 1476... The cuts had already been used by Martin Huss in editions of the Miroir of 1478 and 1479” (BMC, VIII, p. 259).
The fourth edition of “the first illustrated book printed in France” (Claudin), incredibly rare, this is one of 20 copies known of any of the first five editions, several of which are damaged or incomplete. This is one of the most lavishly illustrated incunables printed in France, it contains 257 woodcuts, the first two enhanced in red: “the 257 woodcuts in this book are from the blocks used by Richel at Basel in his edition of the German version entitled Spiegel der menschlichen Behaltnis, 1476... The cuts had already been used by Martin Huss in editions of the Miroir of 1478 and 1479” (BMC, VIII, p. 259).
Further images
Folio (330 x 245mm). 206 ff. paginated 5-205, first leaf of preface in facsimile. two columns, 46 lines per page. Type: 180G. Many initials painted in red, four lines high. Collation consistent with BMC VIII, p. 259 (1482 edition), *4 a-z ç8 µ10. White calf tanned with alum signed by Louise Bescond, decor engraved with floral designs and arabesques, mirror in white gold leaf in the center of each of the sides, border in dark red, vermilion and gilt roulettes, pastedown fully covered in white lacquered gold leaf paper, endpages in white goat velvet; dust jacket, slipcase. Fore edge margins expertly extended throughout the work, away from text, washed and cleaned.
The Miroir de la rédemption dominates a codified literary genre since the 12th century. But the idea of the book as a mirror of the world, “das Buch als Spiegel”, is obviously much older. It's a multi-secular rundown that we find from antiquity, the mirror itself, so present in paintings and myths, symbolizes both the desire for knowledge and its negative counterpart, vanity.
The “miroir” as the title of a book first appeared with Saint Augustin and would be used as such until the 12 th century. This “miroir” doesn't have a noun attached to it yet. We are talking about “miroir”, period. A proper name was added much later for the sake of precision: Miroir of Augustin, Miroir of Adalbert, Miroir of Gregoireetc. The term of “miroir” was then synonymous with “revelation” of the divine word given to inspired writers and saints. In this case, the book is a sort of book- mirror that reflects this “revelation”.
From the 12th century on, the title of “miroir” diversified and designated a certain type of literature with moral or educational purposes. It was always followed by a complement of the noun or an adjective that specified the meaning and at the same time, began to desacralize it.
The miroir was no longer implicitly that of heaven. A long list of texts of the Middle Ages used this term of “speculum” in their title, “Spiegel” or “miroir”: “miroir of the virgins”,miroir of faith”, “miroir of the soul”, “miroir of the future”, “ladies miroir”, “boys miroir”, “miroir of imbeciles”, “miroir of ungrateful children”, “grand miroir”, “miroir of alchemicals” etc. like as many models, to follow or reject, of virtues and vices, of education, justice or gallantry.
The “miroir” opened up to categories other than that of strictly biblical texts. It became a literary work. It was organized according to a particular vision of the world or of human destiny. Writers or translators, even anonymous ones, seized a subject and marked it with their subjectivity:“In parallel to the "Sciences de bien mourir" (Sciences of dying well), ascetic treatises with the evocative title of "Miroir" multiplied to put the Christian on the right path and guide him throughout his journey to his ineluctable end. Repenting, living well to die well, that was, in the end, the common fundamental lesson of all the "Miroirs," whether it was expanded and structured compilations or small versified pieces of a few stanzas”. (Geneviève Hasenohr).
Le Miroir de la rédemption obviously crowns all these miroirs since it broaches one of the central questions of the end of the Middle Ages, that of the salvation of the soul. We know how, for all sorts of millenarian reasons, the 15th century was particularly sensitive to the motive of death that we find in the many macabre dances and large amount of popular prints of the time. This sensitivity can befound in other printed titles such as the Arts de mourir and the different variants of the Apocalypses. Mathias Huss would also give an edition from Lyon of the Danse macabre in 1499. Le Miroir de la rédemption makes up not only a sum of all the observances of religious life and the reading that a Christian must know, but also includes parts of pagan history, mainly La Légende dorée.
This kind of “miroir” nevertheless remains codified: the structure of the Miroir de la rédemption follows a typological method – like the Bible des Pauvres, another widely circulated book in the Middle Ages. Every Fact of the New Testament (antitype) is announced by scenes from the Old Testament (type). Each chapter contains four parts: one scene of the life of Christ and three stories prefiguring it.Some are placed opposite each other. There is a mysterious concordance between the two Testaments. For example, Noah's sons make fun of their father when, drunk, he announces the sarcasm that Christ would suffer during his torture.
Each of the forty-two chapters is made up of one hundred rhyming lines. They are preceded by a prologue of one hundred lines and a table. Each chapter ends with a prayer.
Illustration and vernacular language:
Le Miroir de la rédemption inaugurated the combined appearance of the use of vernacular languages and illustration in printing. In Lyon, contrary to what happened in Paris, the book in French occupied an important place from the beginning in the production of the first printing workshops. These books, destined for readers who knew little or no Latin, were likely to find a clientele in a large merchant town like the town on the Rhone, where they could, moreover, becirculated more widely through fairs. As it was often usually illustrated texts in the manuscript or xylographic form, the printers in Lyon were also the first in France to introduce wood engravings in their books.
The simultaneous use of engraving and spoken language obviously made it possible to address the greatest number: countrymen, artisans and wealthy bourgeois, amateurs of texts written in a language that was finally accessible to them. That same year, 1478, the first book of medicine was published in French, the Guidon de la pratique en chirurgie by Guy de Chauliac, accompanied by twenty-five typographic ornaments depicting surgical instruments in black silhouette (three copies are preserved in Europe: at the BnF, in Berlin, and at the British Library).
The first illustrated book printed in FranceThe “first illustrated book printed in France” (Claudin), Le Miroir de la redemption, was printed by Martin Huss in Lyon in 1478 and again in 1479. His brother or cousin, Mathias Huss, reprinted the book in the same workshop in 1482, 1483 and 1484. Between these five editions, only the composition of the page (place of the engravings in relation to the text) differs slightly.
“On August 26, 1478, Martin Huss completed a large folio with two columns: Le Mirouer de la Rédemption de l’umain lignage, translated from Latin to French by Julien Macho of the Order of the Augustinians, in Lyon. It's the first illustrated book that was printed in France. The wood engraved plates and the characters came from Basle. Huss got them from the printer Bernard Richel, who in 1476had published a German edition of the same book (Spiegel Menschlicher Behältnisse). He had bought from him or rented the woodcuts and the characters, as was the common practice at the time in the major typographical centers. Le Mirouer de la Redemption synthetized the religious beliefs of the time and addressed the masses; it sold very successfully. A year later, almost to theday (27 August 1479), a second edition appeared accompanied by the same wood engraved plates, which remained in Lyon in Martin's workshop, continued by Mathias Huss” (Claudin, pp. 158 et 165)
Der Spiegel Menschlicher Behältnisse and Le Miroir de la rédemption are the vernacular language adaptations of Speculum humanae salvationis which knew a considerable circulation in the form of manuscripts, blockbooks (BnF, Rés. Xylo. 45) and printed copies: close to three hundred fifty manuscripts dating from the 14th and 15th centuries are inventoried just for the Latin language. Virtuallyevery large library of the time kept one. The two oldest go back to 1324 (BnF Lat. 9584 and Arsenal 593). No fewer than sixteen incunable editions were published in Latin, German, French and Dutch: “The work must have been extremely popular in France, as elsewhere, for he republished it in 1479 and 1482, and his kinsman, Mathias Huss, printed editions in 1483 and 1484” (Adrian Wilson).
These manuscripts and first editions all belong to the dimension of the Christian's personal prayer, so encouraged by the Devotio moderna. As such, they are frequently used books, which is why they are rare. Their condition often suffers defects that would be unacceptable for other books. Only one copy of the 1478 edition of the Miroir de la rédemption has been proposed on the internationalauction market in over thirty years. It was incomplete of forty- two leaves (sold at auction for £118,000 including fees, in 1995). This copy is admirably conditioned in a slipcase by Louise Bescond.
About twenty copies of the Miroir de la rédemption (often incomplete) are, however, kept in public institutions:- editions by Martin Huss (1478 and 1479): at the BnF (two copies of which one is recomposed: Res. A-1241 and A-1242); in Brussels (Bibliothèque royale, shelf C-106); at the Huntington Library in San Marino (shelf 105169)- editions by Mathias Huss (1482, 1483 and 1484): at the BnF (two copies: Res. A 1243 and A 1244); at the library of the Beaux Arts (two copies including one incomplete: Masson 838 and 841); at the BM of Lyon (two copies including one incomplete: Res. Inc 115 and Res. Inc 1043); at the British Library (IB 41685); at the Bodleian of Oxford (incomplete), in the BerlinKupferstichkabinet and the Mettingen Draiflessen Collection (Liberna, Inc. 110); Lille (Inc. D14); the Hague(Museum Meermanno, MMW I 354); Bordeaux (3618); Reims (incomplete); Vienna (Ink. 6. E. 10); at the Library of Congress (Rosenwald, Incun. 1484 s.73); at the New York Pierpont Morgan Library (PML 20982); Edinburgh (two including oneincomplete); Bordeaux; Chartres (incomplete)
The biggest European and American libraries have always sought Le Miroir de la rédemption.
It is very rare in private hands, even incomplete or recomposed. The presence of a copy of the Miroir de la rédemption in a collection, whether public or private, bears witness to the high quality attention brought to typographical monuments of the printed book.
Le Miroir de la rédemption is therefore an essential milestone in the history of the book: it is the first illustrated book printed in France, and in French. These two characteristics pursue one of the dreams of the founders of printing, that of a book accessible to the greatest number, which, ultimately, turns the religious and sacred book towards the profane and universal book.
Provenance: H. Tenschert, 1989; Ritman, cat. Christ, Plato, HermesTrismegistus, 1990, n° 175. BMC VIII, p. 259 (IB41685, édition de 1482); Anatole Claudin, Histoire de l’Imprimerie en France eu XVe et au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1904, tome III; Catalogue des Incunables de la Bibliothèque nationale, II, S-356 ; BnF, Réserve des livres rares, A-1241 (BIS); Goff S662 (édition de 1484); Brunet, V, 481.
The Miroir de la rédemption dominates a codified literary genre since the 12th century. But the idea of the book as a mirror of the world, “das Buch als Spiegel”, is obviously much older. It's a multi-secular rundown that we find from antiquity, the mirror itself, so present in paintings and myths, symbolizes both the desire for knowledge and its negative counterpart, vanity.
The “miroir” as the title of a book first appeared with Saint Augustin and would be used as such until the 12 th century. This “miroir” doesn't have a noun attached to it yet. We are talking about “miroir”, period. A proper name was added much later for the sake of precision: Miroir of Augustin, Miroir of Adalbert, Miroir of Gregoireetc. The term of “miroir” was then synonymous with “revelation” of the divine word given to inspired writers and saints. In this case, the book is a sort of book- mirror that reflects this “revelation”.
From the 12th century on, the title of “miroir” diversified and designated a certain type of literature with moral or educational purposes. It was always followed by a complement of the noun or an adjective that specified the meaning and at the same time, began to desacralize it.
The miroir was no longer implicitly that of heaven. A long list of texts of the Middle Ages used this term of “speculum” in their title, “Spiegel” or “miroir”: “miroir of the virgins”,miroir of faith”, “miroir of the soul”, “miroir of the future”, “ladies miroir”, “boys miroir”, “miroir of imbeciles”, “miroir of ungrateful children”, “grand miroir”, “miroir of alchemicals” etc. like as many models, to follow or reject, of virtues and vices, of education, justice or gallantry.
The “miroir” opened up to categories other than that of strictly biblical texts. It became a literary work. It was organized according to a particular vision of the world or of human destiny. Writers or translators, even anonymous ones, seized a subject and marked it with their subjectivity:“In parallel to the "Sciences de bien mourir" (Sciences of dying well), ascetic treatises with the evocative title of "Miroir" multiplied to put the Christian on the right path and guide him throughout his journey to his ineluctable end. Repenting, living well to die well, that was, in the end, the common fundamental lesson of all the "Miroirs," whether it was expanded and structured compilations or small versified pieces of a few stanzas”. (Geneviève Hasenohr).
Le Miroir de la rédemption obviously crowns all these miroirs since it broaches one of the central questions of the end of the Middle Ages, that of the salvation of the soul. We know how, for all sorts of millenarian reasons, the 15th century was particularly sensitive to the motive of death that we find in the many macabre dances and large amount of popular prints of the time. This sensitivity can befound in other printed titles such as the Arts de mourir and the different variants of the Apocalypses. Mathias Huss would also give an edition from Lyon of the Danse macabre in 1499. Le Miroir de la rédemption makes up not only a sum of all the observances of religious life and the reading that a Christian must know, but also includes parts of pagan history, mainly La Légende dorée.
This kind of “miroir” nevertheless remains codified: the structure of the Miroir de la rédemption follows a typological method – like the Bible des Pauvres, another widely circulated book in the Middle Ages. Every Fact of the New Testament (antitype) is announced by scenes from the Old Testament (type). Each chapter contains four parts: one scene of the life of Christ and three stories prefiguring it.Some are placed opposite each other. There is a mysterious concordance between the two Testaments. For example, Noah's sons make fun of their father when, drunk, he announces the sarcasm that Christ would suffer during his torture.
Each of the forty-two chapters is made up of one hundred rhyming lines. They are preceded by a prologue of one hundred lines and a table. Each chapter ends with a prayer.
Illustration and vernacular language:
Le Miroir de la rédemption inaugurated the combined appearance of the use of vernacular languages and illustration in printing. In Lyon, contrary to what happened in Paris, the book in French occupied an important place from the beginning in the production of the first printing workshops. These books, destined for readers who knew little or no Latin, were likely to find a clientele in a large merchant town like the town on the Rhone, where they could, moreover, becirculated more widely through fairs. As it was often usually illustrated texts in the manuscript or xylographic form, the printers in Lyon were also the first in France to introduce wood engravings in their books.
The simultaneous use of engraving and spoken language obviously made it possible to address the greatest number: countrymen, artisans and wealthy bourgeois, amateurs of texts written in a language that was finally accessible to them. That same year, 1478, the first book of medicine was published in French, the Guidon de la pratique en chirurgie by Guy de Chauliac, accompanied by twenty-five typographic ornaments depicting surgical instruments in black silhouette (three copies are preserved in Europe: at the BnF, in Berlin, and at the British Library).
The first illustrated book printed in FranceThe “first illustrated book printed in France” (Claudin), Le Miroir de la redemption, was printed by Martin Huss in Lyon in 1478 and again in 1479. His brother or cousin, Mathias Huss, reprinted the book in the same workshop in 1482, 1483 and 1484. Between these five editions, only the composition of the page (place of the engravings in relation to the text) differs slightly.
“On August 26, 1478, Martin Huss completed a large folio with two columns: Le Mirouer de la Rédemption de l’umain lignage, translated from Latin to French by Julien Macho of the Order of the Augustinians, in Lyon. It's the first illustrated book that was printed in France. The wood engraved plates and the characters came from Basle. Huss got them from the printer Bernard Richel, who in 1476had published a German edition of the same book (Spiegel Menschlicher Behältnisse). He had bought from him or rented the woodcuts and the characters, as was the common practice at the time in the major typographical centers. Le Mirouer de la Redemption synthetized the religious beliefs of the time and addressed the masses; it sold very successfully. A year later, almost to theday (27 August 1479), a second edition appeared accompanied by the same wood engraved plates, which remained in Lyon in Martin's workshop, continued by Mathias Huss” (Claudin, pp. 158 et 165)
Der Spiegel Menschlicher Behältnisse and Le Miroir de la rédemption are the vernacular language adaptations of Speculum humanae salvationis which knew a considerable circulation in the form of manuscripts, blockbooks (BnF, Rés. Xylo. 45) and printed copies: close to three hundred fifty manuscripts dating from the 14th and 15th centuries are inventoried just for the Latin language. Virtuallyevery large library of the time kept one. The two oldest go back to 1324 (BnF Lat. 9584 and Arsenal 593). No fewer than sixteen incunable editions were published in Latin, German, French and Dutch: “The work must have been extremely popular in France, as elsewhere, for he republished it in 1479 and 1482, and his kinsman, Mathias Huss, printed editions in 1483 and 1484” (Adrian Wilson).
These manuscripts and first editions all belong to the dimension of the Christian's personal prayer, so encouraged by the Devotio moderna. As such, they are frequently used books, which is why they are rare. Their condition often suffers defects that would be unacceptable for other books. Only one copy of the 1478 edition of the Miroir de la rédemption has been proposed on the internationalauction market in over thirty years. It was incomplete of forty- two leaves (sold at auction for £118,000 including fees, in 1995). This copy is admirably conditioned in a slipcase by Louise Bescond.
About twenty copies of the Miroir de la rédemption (often incomplete) are, however, kept in public institutions:- editions by Martin Huss (1478 and 1479): at the BnF (two copies of which one is recomposed: Res. A-1241 and A-1242); in Brussels (Bibliothèque royale, shelf C-106); at the Huntington Library in San Marino (shelf 105169)- editions by Mathias Huss (1482, 1483 and 1484): at the BnF (two copies: Res. A 1243 and A 1244); at the library of the Beaux Arts (two copies including one incomplete: Masson 838 and 841); at the BM of Lyon (two copies including one incomplete: Res. Inc 115 and Res. Inc 1043); at the British Library (IB 41685); at the Bodleian of Oxford (incomplete), in the BerlinKupferstichkabinet and the Mettingen Draiflessen Collection (Liberna, Inc. 110); Lille (Inc. D14); the Hague(Museum Meermanno, MMW I 354); Bordeaux (3618); Reims (incomplete); Vienna (Ink. 6. E. 10); at the Library of Congress (Rosenwald, Incun. 1484 s.73); at the New York Pierpont Morgan Library (PML 20982); Edinburgh (two including oneincomplete); Bordeaux; Chartres (incomplete)
The biggest European and American libraries have always sought Le Miroir de la rédemption.
It is very rare in private hands, even incomplete or recomposed. The presence of a copy of the Miroir de la rédemption in a collection, whether public or private, bears witness to the high quality attention brought to typographical monuments of the printed book.
Le Miroir de la rédemption is therefore an essential milestone in the history of the book: it is the first illustrated book printed in France, and in French. These two characteristics pursue one of the dreams of the founders of printing, that of a book accessible to the greatest number, which, ultimately, turns the religious and sacred book towards the profane and universal book.
Provenance: H. Tenschert, 1989; Ritman, cat. Christ, Plato, HermesTrismegistus, 1990, n° 175. BMC VIII, p. 259 (IB41685, édition de 1482); Anatole Claudin, Histoire de l’Imprimerie en France eu XVe et au XVIe siècle, Paris, 1904, tome III; Catalogue des Incunables de la Bibliothèque nationale, II, S-356 ; BnF, Réserve des livres rares, A-1241 (BIS); Goff S662 (édition de 1484); Brunet, V, 481.
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