"B" is for Biblia Integra of 1491

Among the holdings of OCHF Library are very rare pages from Froeben's Biblia Integra of 1491.  Johann Froben, 1460-1527, was a German-born Swiss scholar and printer active in Basel.  Basel had already been a center of printing for some twenty years when Froben, who was to become its greatest printer, published in 1491 as his first book an octavo Bible, the "Biblia Integra", pages of which are here displayed.  Prior to the publication of Froben's octavo Biblia Integra, printed Bibles tended to be massive folios that were difficult to transport and therefore primarily suited for ecclesiastical use.

The Biblia Integra was the first Bible printed in octavo (pocket) size.  Because of its small size, and because it could be produced and sold at a fraction of the cost of larger Bibles, it became known as Froben's "poor man's Bible".  B y 1515 Froben and three partners owned four presses, and later seven.  As well as experimenting with less expensive small books, Froben's contributions to printing included popularizing Roman type, introducing italic and Greek fonts, and employing talented artists, such as Hans Holbein the Younger, as illustrators.

Although Froben's Bible was printed in Latin, because of its small size, it is rightly ranked with Martin Luther's 1534 German Bible, and later Bibles translated into other European vernaculars, as influencial in making the Bible increasingly accessible to laypeople in early modern Europe. 

Froben surrounded himself with a number of scholars who worked with him in his publications.  Chief among these was Erasmus, who, after visiting him on several occasions, in 1521 permanently took up residence with the printer.  It was from Froben's press that the first published edition of the Greek New Testament (edited by Erasmus) was issued in 1516.  In the same year Froben issued the works of Jerome in nine folio volumes. In 1527, at the time of his death, the works of Augustine in ten folio vlumes were passing through the press.