Second edition of David Joris's famous Wonderboeck (Book of miracles), extensively revised and enlarged by the author in 1551 but not printed until almost thirty years after his death. One of the most important and most extensive works of the well-known Dutch Anabaptist David Joris, it was revered like a Bible by his followers.
The present second edition was not only extensively revised and expanded but also took on a new graphic form, Dutch textura types rather than the German fraktur, rotunda and schwabacher types of the first edition, and most of the larger woodcuts were replaced by engravings made for this edition. The stunning full-page bride of Christ by Hieronymus Wierix, a nude female figure, winged and crowned with a sword and a heart in her hands and two captive serpants and a skeleton at her feet, is a high point of the engraver's art.
Lacking 2 leaves, each containing only an illustration, and with a small piece of the foot margin of the title-page cut out and patched to remove most of a library stamp. Leaves +2-+9 slightly shorter and possibly sophisticated (but from the same edition) and a few preliminary leaves with damage in the gutter margin. Otherwise a good copy, with a few marginal waterstains. Second and best edition of a central work in the history of Dutch Anabaptists. Van der Linde 57; Typ. Bat. 5643; Bainton, David Joris, pp. 71-73; for the bride of Christ engraving: Hollstein LXX, pp. 214-217, no. 38.