Double Engraving - Tobias Stimmer - Figures From The Bible - 1576

Superb double-sided engravings by Tobias Stimmel (1539-1584). The first engraving represents a little-known episode from the Old Testament. Elisha has the children punished by bears. History present in the Book of Kings. The engraving is signed with the monogram MF, an anonymous monogrammist who worked with Tobias Stimmel (see references). The second engraving represents an episode from the Old Testament. The story of King Acab (7th king of Israel) is told at the beginning of the Book of Kings. Each engraving is richly ornamented and in good condition. They come from the book "Neue künstliche Figuren Biblischer Historien" in French, Les Figures de la Bible by Tobias Stimmel published in 1576. 14x17cm Explanations: Each page of the Figures adopts a tripartite presentation, which takes up that of collections of emblems, other genre codified which also enjoyed great success in the 16th century: motto, engraving, epigram. Above the engraving, the page in fact bears an inscription or motto, that is to say a title, often consisting of the reference to the biblical text concerned. Below the image is placed the epigram, or subscriptio, which consists of a moral sentence, or other descriptive, didactic or meditative verse piece. The genre of Figures of the Bible, which has the undeniable advantage of allowing printer-booksellers to make profitable the cost of wood or copper previously made for the printing of large illustrated bibles, is traditionally traced back to Luther's Passional, published in 1529. Historically, as Luther explains in his preface, the primary function of these collections is to offer simple people a convenient means of instruction. Playing the role of “Bible for the illiterate”, the Figures facilitate the memorization of holy history thanks to the educational and mnemonic function of images and versified texts. The text of the Figures is also most often written in the vernacular, which testifies to the desire to make biblical history more widely accessible. References: -Engammare, Max. Figures of the Bible. The forgotten destiny of a literary genre in images (16th-17th centuries). In: Mixtures of the French School of Rome. Italy and the Mediterranean, volume 106, n°2. 1994.pp. 549-59 -Kammerer, Elsa. Between recreation of the soul and recreation of the eyes: Figures of the Bible in the 16th century. 2012.