Luther Bible of 1534-FL

Rating:
Summary: Overall Excellent and Accessible - Misprints are a problem
Review: Approachable, stunningly beautiful and accessible (eso. for the price!) ... However - there are some publication problems with omissions/repeat of pages in Isaiah and Luke -- prob. wouldn't notice if you don't read German -- but bothersome (reason for 3 stars vs. 5 stars). Still, excellent quality (paper and color images), cover, and accompanying commentary. Esp. for the price (vs. more expensive Wycliffe facsimile) -- can't beat for ammature German history buffs.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful.
Review: This is a thoroughly delightful book.

One first delight is to have an integral text of an original Luther Bible.

Luther was the first to clinch the problem of an adequate rendering of the Bible in a living vernacular, as evident from his spectacular mastery of the German language, the written Standard of which he only invented as he went along. He had started with the New Testament published in 1522 and worked another 12 years to complete the entire text, published in the 1534 edition reproduced here. Luther set a most attractive stylistic model, breaking free of inadequate linguistic patterns of the source languages, in favor of a fresh and popular style in the target language. As he rebuked his incompetent critics:

"One must not ask written Latin how one should speak German, as these asses do; rather, one must ask the mother in her house, the children in the alley, the ordinary man in the marketplace, and observe how they speak, and translate accordingly; then they will understand, and they will notice that one is speaking plain German with them."

Since the English Bible corresponding to Luther's in literary importance, the King James Version [KJV] of 1611, with the establishment of English as the world language, went round the world to become its most influential book, a second delight is in the comparison now made possible to a large English speaking audience of their classic Bible with the German text.

Anybody familiar with both the early Modern English Bibles and Luther's German will wonder at their strikingly similar "ring". William Tyndale at his death in 1536 had Englished three fifths of the Bible, Miles Coverdale in 1535 compiled the first complete Bible in Modern English; these works form the basis of the KJV. The New English translations always appeared after the corresponding parts of the Luther Bible had been on the market; they deferred to Luther's stylistic ideal; their rhetorical gesture is identical, nay, the English translators often even rendered Luther's specific German wordings rather than the original Greek and Hebrew. Hence, through the transmission of of the English Bible, many German sayings from Luther's translation ended up as English near proverbs, as "the Lord is my shepherd" < "Der Herr ist mein Hirte"; "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" < "der Geist ist willig, aber das Fleisch ist schwach".

The third and main delight is in the pictures. Indeed, Luther had improved the complete text in almost yearly new editions till his last lifetime edition of 1545. Decisive for the choice of this particular 1534 copy for the facsimile reprint must have been its beauty.

The Wittenberg Luther Bible editions of the 16th century contain roughly 120 elaborate four-by-six-inches woodcuts from the Wittenberg workshop of Lucas Cranach. Only in this 1534 copy these have additionally been coloured by hand, in brilliant water colours, by a 16th century artist, probably also of Cranach's workshop, turning them into completely novel, individual works of art.

Delightful is the only epithet I can find for the depiction of the biblical subject matter. -- My favorite evangelist is the bespectacled St. Mark, earnestly writing at his desk, where the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove from above inspires him in a stream of golden rays. Mark's trademark lion stands at attention; both evangelist and lion sport magnificent halos. -- Heading the book of Jonah is a simultaneous picture of 11 Jonah-scenes; the man escapes from the fish's jaws (a giant shark, to judge by the teeth), prophesies Niniveh's downfall, and at last sits to watch from his bright green arbor, topped by a bright yellow pumpkin: the pumpkin represents an old translation error. -- King David always carries his harp, even when climbing from King Saul's daughter's window or ogling Bathsheba from his palace verandah. -- The cities have medieval architecture; the downfall of Babylon is polemically shown as a downfall of Rome; people are clothed to the latest 1532 fashion, Potiphar's wife chasing Joseph wears distinctly modern bedroom slippers: The artist had given actuality to the Bible scenes.

The 1534 edition being a first issue, the distribution of the text on the page is sometimes awkward. The folio numbering contains a few printer's errors; but, to my checking, no pages are repeated or lacking. Some woodcuts in the original book had been repeated on purpose, but the illuminator always distinguished them by the colours, thereby also multiplying indefinitely the shapes of the beautiful, large chapter initials.

One last delight is the side-effect of a recent deplorable accident, which has made this reproduction especially valuable to every owner of the 2003 book. Its original used to be kept in the Anna-Amalia-library at Weimar, the one which was ravaged by the catastrophic 2004 fire. The Bible collection of Anna Amalia's was indeed saved (thank God); but the original of this book did incur some water damage.

The present facsimile, however, preserves intact the book's original state -- is better than the original now, you might say; and, taking all this into account, can you hesitate to secure yourself a copy?