The Eclipse
Sacro Bosco, Johannes de
Sphaera Mundi
Venetiis : Impressum mandato & expensis nobilis viri Octauiani scoti civis
modoetiensis, 1490.
In the 15th century, woodcuts were rarely colored. If they were, it was done by hand, possibly assisted by a stencil, or by using a block completely separate from that which printed the black linework. This was expensive, time-consuming work that often lent itself to errors.
Item 6 shows an example of the first tri-color woodcut, invented in Venice in 1485.
While this edition is from 1490, the black, yellow, and red of this eclipse diagram is a monument in woodcut history, as it meant this multi-colored illustration could be exactly replicated from book to book. The addition of color allowed more information to be conveyed through a single image and spread to a wider audience through its reproductions.