inspired by MissJulesBerlin's documentation of her growing collection i went to the shelves last night to locate my copy of #221 - Bilder des Todes by Hans Holbein d.J. Published in 1977 with notes by Kurt Liebmann, an East German poet & art historian who himself would meet the Grim Reaper only three years later, the Insel Bücherei edition is a reproduction of the 1538 version printed in Lyon by the Trechsel Brothers, with titles rendered in German by Hans Lützelburger. While i adore this slim volume it isn't that often that i take down from the shelf. So imagine my surprise when just a few hours later i chanced across Holbein's diminutive images of moral instruction once again. Book Aesthete reproduced the "Death & the Astronomer" plate from an 1803 edition. Curiously their version, by D. Deuchar after Holbein, not only has 46 plates instead of just the 41 in mine, but has reversed the orientation of the two figures, with Death approaching the oblivious Astronomer from the left rather than the right. I suppose it just goes to show that The End always arrives from an unexpected direction!
