Early German Illustrated Books vs Renaissance Illustrated Books

For me, one of the big differences between early German illustrated books and Renaissance illustrated books was in the actual production of the books. The earliest books were a collaboration between the printer, who worked strictly with type, and the illuminator who would add hand drawn initials, ornamentation, and illustrations.

An example of a hand colored woodcut in an early German book by Konrad Von Megenburg.


In 1476, however, the first book to use both multiple colors and illustrations along with text in one press run was produced by a master printer named Ratold. It was the "Calendarium"  which was an almanac of sorts.

Shown here is a two page spread from Calendarium with multicolored illustrations recording information about eclipses. 

Another innovation from Renaissance printers was the use of more legible fonts. the early German type was intended to mimic the hand lettering of the illuminated manuscripts. Throughout the Renaissance printers started developing and using roman letter forms which were much more legible and compact.

One last thing I'd like to comment on is the overall page design. In the renaissance, printers appear to have started thinking about the best use of the entire page as a whole.  Below is a two page spread from a book produced in 1499 by the Aldine press. The book is "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili". Note the smaller margins, the thoughtful page layout and the integration of the illustration into the text. Compare this to the example above by Megenburg.