[HOLBEIN, HANS]. The Dance of Death. London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1887.
NEW EDITION. Cloth-bound; hardcover; octavo (22 x 14 x 3 cm); unpaginated. English text. Bound in publisher's burgundy cloth with gilt titles and decoration to spine; half-title; frontispiece; engraved title; 48 engraved plates with descriptive text. Condition: VERY GOOD. Binding tight and secure. Covers well-preserved with slight bumping to spine ends. Interior very lightly toned, the front endpaper with a small corner piece missing, the same endpaper with a previous owner signature.
Notes: The Dance of Death, compiled by Francis Douce, edited by John Holbein, and printed in London by Hamilton, Adams & Co. in 1887, revives Hans Holbein the Younger's classic moral sequence of forty-eight woodcut engravings exploring the transience of life and universal mortality. This wonderful volume forms part of the Victorian revival of Renaissance art and moral allegory. The text has a biographical commentary on Holbein's life and his intellectual connection with Erasmus, detailing how humanist thought influenced the creation of the Dance of Death cycle. The engravings are accompanied by descriptive text, highlighting the precision and subtlety of Holbein's famous work.
