Pages from books

I have these two pages out of what I think is an old German (?) bible. They've been in my family for years, but I have no idea of what they may be or their age.

Any ideas? And any ideas if they're even worth getting appraised?

 

Yes, they are from a German bible, the one on the right is from the gospel of St Matthew.
I have no idea if two random pages are worth more than just decorative value, but I'll tag @Ex Libris for you.

 

Are you in the States, Yan?

Debora

 

Yes, in Michigan. However, originally I am from the Czech Republic, and these pages were most likely obtained there.

 

I would guess a 17th C bible.

The illustration with the angel is of Mathew accompanied by his evangelical symbol. Not sure about the other one.

Associating them with a specific bible might make a difference to value, otherwise I would agree that the value is primarily decorative.

I suggest that the best hope of identifying their source is to take them out of their protective wrap and get good photos (or scans) of the images for an online search.

 

The other image might be Moses striking the rock to bring forth water? (Numbers 20: 10-13)

 

Nice pages! I will try to identify the exact pages for you when I am able to. Now I am somewhere else in my head. Sorry for that.

 

Page numbers look like 941 & 948 to me, so think second one would also be from Matthew. Doesn't it say Evang___ up top?, she asks, squinting.

 

You're probably correct. I can't really see what's going on.

 

Agree. It would be helpful if the photographs were taken from straight on.

Debora

 

Yes it does, Evangelium, she said after studying it through a loupe.

If the page numbers are that closely together, I would assume it is from the same gospel (of St Matthew).

 

The pages are from a so called Endter I bible, those were printed between 1656 and 1706 by the Endter family in Nürnberg in 14 editions and high numbers. Its allmost impossible to find out the year of the printing. This bibles had the same number of pages for all those years and the only page with a year was the title page. Whenever they ran out of bibles they printed a new run, its also not uncommon to find different bibles with the same year, if a woodcut broke they swaped it for a similar one etc.

At least in German speaking countries those bibles are cheap and easy to find and many incomplete ones have been broken up to sell the woodcuts individually like yours. Decorative value is correct.

Endter II bibles where illustrated with copper engravings instead of the woodcuts and where printed between 1710 and 1788.

Thridly the Endters printed the so called Weimarer Bibles between 1643 and 1768 which were bigger and better made, but had less but full page illustrations.

You can find more information on the website of the WLB, a library with one of the biggest bible collections in the world.

https://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/sammlungen/bibeln/bestand/besondere-stuecke/endter-bibeln/

 

Thanks! You're a wealth of information. That pretty much confirms what I thought.

 

It is 4:30 AM here and at last I have some time to look at your pages

It would help greatly to add some better photo's, so we can read the exact text. Can you provide them please? With a bit of luck I can find the exact edition.

 

A fellow insomniac? We live in the same town, if only we could meet somewhere for coffee in the middle of the night.