The prints from the time between Johannes Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible (1452–1454) and 1500, known as incunabula, still bear the hallmarks of the handwritten book. The hand-painted ornamental and figured decorations have been increasingly replaced by wood carvings, some of which have been coloured by hand.

Franchino Gaffori: Practica musicae. Milan: Guillermus Le Signerre for Johannes Petrus de Lomatio, 30 Sep. 1496.
Shelf mark: Ink.2426(2)

© SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek

The influential musician, composer and music theorist Franchino Gaffori (Gafurius) (1451–1522) began working as the musical director at Milan Cathedral in 1484. The wood carved initials and bordering of this copy, printed on parchment, are coloured so beautifully they look hand-painted. The coat of arms/impresi of Duke Ludovico Maria Sforza of Milan (1452–1508) were added to the originally empty escutcheons.

Sebastian Brant: Ship of Fools
French translation by Pierre Rivière. – Paris: [Jean Lambert for] Geoffroi de Marnef and Johann Philippi, 1497.
Shelf mark: Ink.4114(2)

© SLUB / Deutsche Fotothek

The Ship of Fools by Strasbourg humanist, lawyer and poet Sebastian Brant (1457/58–1521) had an impact right across Europe as the first German-language work of moral satire. Featuring 112 wood carvings, some of which trace back to Dürer himself, the literary work was first printed in Basel on Shrove Tuesday 1494. A Latin version was published in 1497, and translated into French that same year. The wood carvings in Dresden’s copy have been magnificently coloured in gouache with gold highlights. The first two carvings are also framed with hand-painted borders bearing the coat of arms of the dukes of Albret, the motto “ESPOIR MENVYT” (“lesser hope”) and the initials I[ean?] D[uc?] (=Jean d’Albret, King of Navarre?).