Switching Woodcuts— Maurus the Monk

Occasionally, substitutions were made with respect to certain woodcuts. On folio CXLVIr the woodcut used to portray the Roman monk Maurus is different in the colored and uncolored pages that we’ve been examining with respect to the addition of color. Perhaps the original woodcut became damaged and was replaced by another image. It is difficult to tell which of the two woodcuts was the original, but other evidence suggests that the uncolored copy from which this folio was removed (there is less degradation in the printed words and the lines of the woodcut images are slightly crisper) suggest that the colored copy’s illustration of Maurus, without a halo and facing away from the text, is the replacement.