Catharina Sperling (1699–1741).

Biblicae V. T. representationes […] Biblische Vorstellungen Alten Testaments […] Répresentations tirées du V.T.

[With:]

Historiae Novi Testamenti […] Neu-Testamentische Geschichten […] Histoires du Nouveau Testament.

Augsburg: Johann Simon Negges, [ca. 1730].

Oblong 8° (19 × 24.5 cm). With 2 engraved title pages and 368 copper engravings (283 Old Testament + 85 New Testament), on wide-margined paper. Complete, as in BnF (FRBNF45935344). Contemporary marbled calf.

Complete suite of biblical prints designed and likely engraved by the Augsburg miniature painter and graphic artist Catharina Sperling (née Heckel). This may be the largest print series created by a woman in early modern Europe. However, in an act of blatant censorial femicide, this copy shows deliberate removal of the artist’s forename (“Catharina”) from all three instances on the title pages—effacing the gendered marker of her identity and rendering the authorship ambiguously male or neutral.

Catharina Sperling (also recorded as Sperling-Heckel, Sperlingin, and other variants) was trained in drawing by her father, the goldsmith Michael Heckel, and in engraving by Johann Ulrich Kraus. She became known for her refined miniature portraits. In 1725 she married the engraver Hieronymus Sperling; she died tragically in 1741 from complications following the birth of her first child.

The title-page proudly states that the plates were “invented and drawn by Catharina Sperling, celebrated miniature painter,” although the plates themselves are unsigned. It is therefore uncertain whether she engraved them herself, or whether they were executed by another hand—possibly her husband. Nevertheless, contemporary sources do describe her as both designer and engraver, making her authorship of the plates highly plausible.

This copy includes the complete sequence of 283 Old Testament plates and 85 New Testament plates, each captioned with a biblical citation in Latin, German, and French. Both parts are introduced by engraved, trilingual title pages. Complete sets of this series are extremely rare; we have traced only copies in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Although this work is referenced via VD18 number 12330248-001 by the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, it is absent from the VD18 proper—perhaps due to its classification as a suite of prints rather than a printed book.

Condition: Binding worn along edges and hinges. New stiff paper endpapers; the final two plates mounted on them. Plates in strong impressions on broad-margined paper, some plates bound out of sequence. Date in ink on first title-page. Generally slightly foxed with occasional thumbing. Most plates show staining to the outer margins, occasionally encroaching slightly into the image area. Seven plates with marginal tears, two of which slightly affect the image.

Literature:

On Catharina Sperling: Thieme/Becker XVI, p. 209 (under M. Heckel); CERL cnp01067155; DNB: 129113395.

On Augsburg picture Bibles: Gier/Janota, pp. 823–830.

On Johann Simon Negges (c. 1726–1792): Gier/Janota, p. 1284.