Illustration und Textaneignung

Abstract

Johannes Gutenberg designed his edition of the Vulgate without illustrations. However, the subsequent evolution of media affected the vernacular appropriation of the Holy Scripture. Vernacular printed Bibles typically featured extensive pictorial representations of the biblical narrative. From an iconographic perspective, this case study examines which types or parts of the images were maintained, transferred but also reconfigured in the woodcuts. In addition, from the perspective of reader-response criticism, it analyzes how the placement of illustrations guides, structures and augments the reading of the Holy Scripture. While the canonical biblical text follows a 14th-century German translation, these illustrations offer new ways of understanding. By looking at the conceptions of Creation, Paradise and Fall of Man in pre-Reformation printed Bibles, this case study examines how religious knowledge changed through these processes of appropriation in the context of a print production which was no longer dominated by clerical but commercial interests. Finally, the findings are compared with Luther’s Bible.