mand for this "Malermi Bible" that another edition,
with new illustrations of almost equal merit, was produced at Venice in
1493, by the printer known as _Anima Mia_. All of these were vernacular
Bibles; all illustrated; all widely known throughout Italy and Germany
before Holbein was born or Luther was in his tenth year. And certainly
it has not yet been suggested by the most rabid Protestantism that
either these or any of the many other illustrated vernacular Bibles
printed long before Luther's great translation,--a translation with a
special claim to immortality because it may be said to have set the
standard for modern German,--were anything but Roman Catholic Bibles.
They were translated and illustrated in behalf of no doctrine which
Protestantism does not hold in common with the Church of Rome.

To lose hold of these things, to lose sight of the true attitude of
Holbein in his Bible woodcuts and his "Images of Death," or of either
Erasmus or Holbein in their satires on the flagrant abuses within their
Church, and their unwavering devotion to that Church,--is to deliberately
throw away the clue to the most vital qualities in the work of either,
and to the whole course and character of Holbein himself, no less than
to that of his lifelong friend and benefactor.

* * * * *

In 1515 the young painter who had come to Basel to better his fortunes
painted a table for Hans Baer's wedding. The bridegroom marched away,
carrying the Basel colours, to the bloody field of Marignano (or
Melegnano) in this same year, and never came back to sit with his
smiling bride around Holbein's most amusing conceits--where "Saint
Nobody" was depicted among all the catastrophes of which he is the
scapegoat, and a few ordinary trifles--a letter, a pair of spectacles,
etc.--were marvellously represented, as if dropped by chance above the
painted decorations, so that people were always attempting to pick them
up. But Hans Baer's sister had been the first wife of a certain brave
comrade--Meyer "of the Hare," who did come back and played an important
part in young Holbein's career. Long lost among forgotten rubbish, Hans
Baer's table has been unearthed, and is now preserved in the town library
at Zurich.

But although Holbein had got his foot on the ladder of fame in this
year's beginning of his connection with Froben, he was as yet very
thankful to accept any commission, however humble. And as a human
document