Biblia Pauperum: (Bible of the Poor)
Bamberg (Germany), second quarter of the fifteenth century
Gothic script
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City
Pal. Lat. 871
Date of Publication of the Facsimile: 1982
Publisher: Belser Verlag, Zurich (Switzerland)
Series: Codices e Vaticanis Selecti
Reproduction: Belser Studio, Vatican City
Printing: Frank W Wesel, Baden-Baden
This much abbreviated Bible, in the vernacular, was commissioned by the Dean of
Bamberg Cathedral for the religious instruction of his parishioners, who generally
could not read or write, and certainly not in Latin. The German text and the pictures
give a straightforward account of the stories of the Bible, emphasizing in
particular how events of the New Testament were prophesied in the Old Testament.
Six colors were used in this facsimile reproduction in order to achieve the subtle
shadings of the original.
