Biblia Pauperum
Introduction
History
A note by the printers, the Unwin Brothers of London, reveal that the original woodblocks were first displayed at the Caxton Celebration in 1877. During this celebration, an extraordinary collection of early printed books was exhibited at South Kensington. This made it one of the largest exhibitions of the printing industry in Europe of that time period. The exhibition was organized by large scale industrial printer William Clowes, typefounder and politician Sir Charles Reed, and printer and bibliographer William Blades, and other prominent individuals.
Approximately fifty years later in the early twentieth century, Mr. Sams of Darlington purchased the original blocks at Nuremberg. They were not recognized as belonging to any printed book and the artist’s mark, which appeared on the thirty-seventh plate, was unknown to any bibliographer. Therefore, it was probable that the woodblocks were unused for nearly four centuries after first being engraved.