The collection consists of a genuine page from a book called Der Heiligen Leben Passional, or The Golden Legend, by Jacobus de Voragine, printed by Koberger in Nuremberg in 1488. These illustrations are as a rule anonymous, the names of the engravers being known only after the year 1500. The blocks of pear wood, on which these designs were cut, were "type high" and set into the same form with the text and both were inked and printed together. The coloring was done by hand, the style being developed on the model of the illuminations used as illustrations to the still earlier manuscripts.
