This book is a reproduction of an 1856 edition put together by nineteenth-century French librarian and art historian, Anatole de Courde de Montaiglon.

Hans Holbein (1497-1543) created the Alphabet of Death at a time when the Latin alphabet did not distinguish between I and J or U and V-the separation into vowels and consonants came after the Renaissance. Therefore, you'll notice Holbein's alphabet has only twenty-four letters.

Further details are offered by De Montaiglon in his introduction to the book. Following the original edition, each letter of the Alphabet of Death is enlarged to allow a closer look at Hans Holbein's meticulously detailed work.