JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
M. Verard was a very active bookseller, printer and publisher, operating in Paris between about 1485 and 1512. He produced a catalog of his printed works that was very extensive, containing more than 100 works. One of them, a Bible published in 1502, contained this spectacular woodcut, “The Root of all Evil”, showing Adam and Eve at the crucial moment, a very considerable man-serpent completely engulfing the fruit tree, winning the confidence and trust of Eve. And above it all grows the tree of humanity its roots firmly in place along the sphere of the fall of man.
I also quite like the portrait of Verard, shown offering one of his books to King Charles VII, hoping for his approval:
