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GERMAN-LANGUAGE BOOKS
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Beautifully
Bound &
Illustrated FRENCH
GOETHE
“Tr.
by Mme. Bachellery”
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Les souffrances du jeune Werther. Tr. by Mme. Bachellery. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1886. 8vo.
$1500.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
NOT in German, but surely this belongs here? The edition is limited
to 220, this one of 10 on papier du Japon. Illustrated with eaux-fortes
by Lalauze, and each plate
present
in four states.

Binding: Bound by Lortic
Frères in red morocco with filigree gilt tooling on covers and in spine
compartments; a gilt rose also in each spine compartment.
Blue morocco in-laid doublures, turquoise watered silk endpapers, and marbled
fly-leaves; very wide turn-ins with gilt dentelles. All edges gilt over marbling.
A copy in lovely condition, imperceptibly rebacked with the
original spine retained. Original wrappers bound in. Protected in a crimson
morocco-edged slipcase.
A
PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”
for others, click
here.

Geomancy Chiromancy & Metoposcopia — Many Plates
Gran-Pescatore, di Chiaravelle. Metoposcopia et chiromantia curiosa. Das ist: Kurtze und deutliche Anweisung Wie man aus dem Gesichte und Gestalt eines Menschen, von dessen Verstand, Gedachtniss, Sitten und seinen Verrichtungen, wie auch Gluck und Ungluck, so wohl Vergangenen, als Zukunfftigen, kan einige vernunfftige
Muthmassung fallen. [with another, as below]. Jena: Verlegts Heinrich Christoph Croker, 1701. 12mo (13.5 cm; 5.25"). Frontis., [5] ff., 250, [18] ff., [30] leaves of plates. [also bound in] Anonymous. Vollkommene Geomantia, oder sogenante Punctier-Kunst. Worin nicht allein, was von verschiednen in dieser bissher ziemlich ohnbekanten Wissenschafft hocherfahrnen Leuthen, Arabern, Welschen, Franzosonen, und Engellandern durch Fleiss und Erfahrung beobachtet worden, der curiosen teutschen Welt zu Dienst zusammen getragen. Freystadt [i.e., Jena]: [Cröcker], 1702. 12mo (13.5 cm; 5.25"). Frontis., 408 p., [3 of 5] fold. plates.
$1800.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Two works of the occult bound in one volume. The first claims to be translated from the Italian but all titles by the “Gran Pescatore di Chiaravalle” are in languages other than Italian! The Metoposcopia et chiromantia curiosa deals with prediction of personality and destiny based on the pattern of lines on one's forehead and via the lines in one's palm.
The Vollkommene Geomantia treates of divination by way of markings on the ground or how fistfuls of dirt land when tossed. This last work is supposedly based on researches in books on the subject written in rabic, Italian, French, and English.
Vollkommene: Jantz Collection, 3334. Neither work in Coumont, Demonology and Witchcraft. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, with slightly yapp edges; all edges red. Text unmarked and untattered. A very nice pair of uncommon books. (26955)
Early Follower of Luther
Sole Edition of These Sermons
Güttell, Casper (a.k.a., Guthel, Caspar; Guttel, Kaspar; and other variants). Jhesus Quadragesimal oder etliche Faste[nzeit] Predig auss den Episteln un[d] Euangelien nach goetlichem Erkentniss. [Zwickaw: Joerg Gastel dess Hans Schoenspergers Diener von Augspurg], 1523. Small 4to (19.5; 7.75"). [191] ff. (lacks final blank leaf).
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
A collection of Guttell's German-language Lenten sermons, printed in gothic type (of course) and with a main and sectional title-pages bearing woodcut borders — some composite, some single units, each different, all interesting, and all well executed. Guttell started his religious life as an Augustinian preacher but soon followed Luther away from the Pope's church. During the Reformation he was charged with drawing up the ecclesiastical regulations for the county of Mansfeld in Saxony and Luther helped with their final revision.
Guttell was a much published sermonizer and preacher during his life time. This, however, is the sole edtion of these sermons.
Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.
Uncommon: OCLC & RLIN combine to locate only two copies in the U.S., this deaccessioned copy being one of them.
VD16 G3986. 19th-century German black mottled paper over paste boards, abraded, especially along the joint (outside). Ex-library with bookplate but no stamps. Lacks the blank leaf y6 at the end (only); a substantial, interesting compendium with considerable printerly charm. (15039)

Praising the
Winter King
Hermann, Zacharias. Huldigungspredigt Als Der Durchlauchtigste Grossmächtigste Fürst und Herr, Herr Friedrich König zu Böhmen, Pfaltzgraff beym Rhein und Churfürst ... zu Bresslaw/ den 27.Tag Februarii dieses 1620. Jahres die Huldigung empfangen. n der Kirchen zu S. Elisabeth gehalten. Bresslaw: Durch Georgium Bawman, 1620.
$675.00
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Hermann (1563–1637), “H. Schrifft Doctore, der Kirchen und Schulen in Bresslaw Inspectore,” praises Friedrich V (elector of the Palatinate, Frederick I, King of Bohemia [1619 to 1620]) and — discourses on what makes a king good and great.
Uncommon: VD17 locates only four copies in Europe and OCLC locates no copies.
Modern plain brown calf, old style. Very good copy. (22422)
Högström, Pehr. M. Petr. Höchströms Missionarii und Pastoris in Galliwarn Beschreibung von dem unter Schwedischer Crone gehörigen Lappland, in sich fassend einen kurtzen Ünterricht sowohl von des Landes Beschaffenheit überhaupt, als aüch von dem Züstande der Einwöhner, ihrer Haushaltung, Sitten, Manieren, Lebensart, Lastern ünd Aberglaüben .... Stockholm & Leipzig : Beij Johann Friedrich Lochner, 1748. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). Engr. t.-p. (double-page), 328 pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 fold. plt.
$1500.00

One of two 1748 German translations of Beskrifning öfwer
de til Sweriges krona lydande Lapmarker, originally published in Stockholm
in the preceding year. The translation of this important, early account of travel
to the Arctic and life above the Arctic Circle was done by Templin.
Printed in black-letter, the volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding
map of Lapland and a folding plate of Laplanders at work and at play, in addition
to the double-page engraved title.
Scarce:
Searches of OCLC and RLIN show only two U.S. locations.
Provenance:
Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front fly-leaf
with inked ownership inscription dated 1770; title-page with early inscription
of J.H. Gronau.
Not in Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration. Contemporary
half calf over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label
and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; leather worn, paper discolored,
one spine compartment with dark adhesion now chipping. All edges marbled.
First text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Free endpapers excised,
with offsetting from turn-ins to edges of front and back fly-leaves; back
fly-leaf with corners torn away. Engraved title-page, map, and plate browned.
A
Lancaster Imprint NOT!
a Stone upon Stone
[Holford, George Peter]. Die
Zerstörung Jerusalems: Ein unumstösslicher Beweisgrund von der Wahrheit
des Christenthums. Lancaster, PA: Gedruckt bei J. Ehrenfriend für Joseph Scharpless, 1810. 12mo (17.2 cm. 6.75"). 132 pp.
$250.00

Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D.
70 by the Romans, ending a four-year revolt by the Jewish zealots. Many Christians,
even at the time, saw this as a judgment on the Jewish nation for rejecting
Jesus, something apparently supported by Jesus' words as recorded in the Gospels
(cf. Luke 19:4244). George Peter Holford (17681839) first published
this popular work in 1805, entitled in its original English The Destruction
of Jerusalem, taking the prophecy of Jesus and its subsequent fulfillment
as one of the proofs of Christianity.
Translated
from English into German by W. Reichenbach, no doubt for the German Evangelicals
in central Pennsylvania, this is the work's first German-language edition.
Another came out in Philadelphia in 1831, and more appeared in the 20th century.
Shaw & Shoemaker 20358; Arndt, The First
Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America,
1740. Sheep with remnants of gilt on spine. Abraded and stained with two wormholes. Pages with some waterstaining
and scattered age spots, not obscuring text; also some chipping in the margins,
not affecting text.
For
GERMAN AMERICANA,
click here.
Loskiel,
Georg Henrich. Geschichte der Mission der evangelischen Brüder unter
den Indianern in Nordamerika. Barby: Zu finden in den Brüdergemein, &
Leipzig: Paul Gotthelf Kummer, 1789. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). [8] ff., 783, [1] pp.
$1200.00

Important history of the early years of Moravian Church mission
work targeting Native Americans in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and surrounding
regions; Sabin refers to this account as the “best authority, both as
to tradition and facts” on the Moravian efforts in the region from 1735
through 1787. Before recounting the mission's history, the author describes
the customs, languages, and beliefs of various tribes, along with the flora
and fauna prevalent in their territories. A great deal of Loskiel's information
is taken from the accounts of Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg and David
Zeisberger, the latter having served for over 40 years as a missionary in North
America.
This first edition does not include the map found in the later English translation;
the six lines of errata (rather than a full page) at the back mark the present
copy as an example of the first issue.
Howes, U.S.iana, L474; Pilling, Algonquian, 317;
Sabin 42109; Vail 795. Early 19th-century German paper-covered boards, much
worn and abraded, slightly cocked, spine with remnants of paper shelving label.
Some corners dog-eared; scattered small spots of foxing, otherwise internally
clean.
Luther, Martin. Der kleine Catechismus des seligen D. Martin Luthers.... Harrisburg: Gedruckt und zu haben bey Jacob Baab, 1831. 12mo (14.5 cm, 5.625"). 125, [1] pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$150.00
In the period to 1830 Luther's Catechism was the German-language work most printed in America, surpassing even the New Testament in its number of editions. This 1831 edition is printed in fraktur and includes morning and evening prayers and grace at meals as well as an examination for children prior to their confirmation.
Quarter sheep over marbled paper: chipped and rubbed; remnants of a paper title label on spine. Lightly browned with foxing/spotting as in common; dog-eared with some shallowly chipped corners resulting in no loss of text. Inked ownership inscription on recto of front free endpaper and of front fly-leaf.

Scholarly
Highlights of Southern
Germany, Plus
Great
Universities of Medieval
Europe
Mabillon, Jean; & Jean de Launoy. ... Iter Germanicum et Io. Launoii De scholis celebribus a Carolo M. et post Carolum M. in Occidente instauratis liber.... Hamburgi: Christiani Liebezeit, 1717. 8vo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). Frontis., [22], 103, [1], 507, [5] pp.
$900.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
No, not IN German; but, this belongs
in this catalogue! Attractive edition of this literary
and antiquarian tour of the Swabia, Helvetia, and Bavaria regions of Germany,
written by a well-travelled Benedictine monk acclaimed for his scholarship.
Originally published in 1683, the Iter Germanicum is here introduced
by Joannes Albertus Fabricius and accompanied by an important treatise on European
universities since the time of Charlemagne, by French historian Jean de Launoy
(Joannes Launoius).
An engraved frontispiece of Ptolemy done by Menzel opens the volume; the
main title-page is printed in red and black, with an engraved allegorical
vignette.
Provenance:
Title-page verso with intaglio-printed armorial ex libris, printed directly
on the leaf (not a bookplate that was glued on): “Ex Bibliotheca
Friederici Roth-Scholtzii.” Friedrich Roth-Scholtz (1687–1736)
was a prominent Nuremberg printer and publisher, as well as the author of
Icones bibliopolarum et typographorum de republica litteraria and the
Bibliotheca chemica; there are several reported examples of such bookplates
in his books.
Recent quarter calf and speckled paper–covered sides,
spine with gilt-stamped author, title, place, date and gilt-ruled raised bands.
Volume a little cocked. Endpapers soiled; some pages with mild offsetting,
and text otherwise clean. (25490)
Wonderful
“Peasant”(!)
Binding
Martin, von Cochem. Der grosse Baumgarten.
Sulzbach: Im verlage der J. E. Seidelschen Kunst- und Buchhandlung, 1807. 8vo (18.5 cm;
7.375"). Frontis., [9] ff., 688 pp., [6] ff., 16 plts.
$2000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A fabulously bound later printing of Cochem's German-language,
comprehensive, personal devotional work. It is printed in gothic type and has
16
woodcut plates.
Binding:
An example of a painted vellum binding, known in Germany as a “Bauern
Einbände,” or “Peasant Binding,” betraying a strong
influence of folk art; but such bindings were certainly not bindings for peasants.
This style almost certainly began in Hungary with early examples first appearing
in southern Germany. The style, however, gained greatest favor in northern
Germany and Holland during the 18th century.
The vellum binding is elaborately tooled in gilt and in-painted in blue,
green, and salmon. All edges are gilt and gauffered.
Binding as above with light rubbing. A very handsome, interestingly
late example of this uncommon binding style. (26690)

Lexicographical Landmark Seriously Polyglot!
Minsheu, John. Minshaei emendatio, vel à mendis expurgatio, seu augmentatio sui ductoris in linguas, the guide into tongues. London: John Haviland, 1627. Folio (37.6 cm, 14.9"). [4] pp., 760 columns (numbering very erratic in last few leaves).
$3000.00
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Second revised edition (following the first revised edition of 1625, and the original first edition of 1617) of Minsheu's Guide into the Tongues, an important polyglot lexicon in English and eight other languages (“Low Dutch,” “High Dutch,” French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ). The work incorporates etymology in all nine languages; it is typographically
quaint, using a variety of fonts including black-letter.
The DNB claims that the 1617 edition of this was “in all probability the first English book printed by subscription, or at all events the first which contains a list of the subscribers.” This revised edition does not include that list, and so, almost certainly was not printed by subscription. Allibone says that this 1627 edition is “Preferred to the other edit., being more correct.”
STC (rev.) 17947; ESTC S121879; Allibone 1325; Vancil 165. On Minsheu, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Period-style morocco framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with original gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed by Grace Bindings in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in). Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped. Some age-toning and light to moderate spotting; one leaf with tear from outer margin into several lines of text, without loss; last leaf with small hole affecting a few words. (21047)
Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior. Erbauliche Lieder-Sammlung zum gottesdienstlichen Gebrauch in den Vereinigten Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinen in Pennsylvanien und den benachbarten Staaten.... Germantaun: Michael Billmeyer, 1803. (17 cm, 6.6"). Frontis., [12], 602, [8 (index)] pp. [bound with] Helmuth, Justus Henry Christian. Kurze Andachten einer Gottsuchenden Seele, auf alle Tage der Woche und andere Umstande eingerichtet. Germantaun: Michael Billmeyer, 1803. 28 pp. [and] Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and the Adjacent States. Anhang zu dem Gesangbuch der Vereinigten Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinen in Nord-America. Germantaun: Michael Billmeyer, 1803. 80 pp.
$375.00
Click the righthand image for an enlargement.
Third edition, following the first of 1786, of this German-American collection of Lutheran hymns, meant for use in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Printed in black-letter, the volume has a woodcut frontispiece portrait of Martin Luther, done by F. Reiche; it includes only the hymns’ texts, without music. As often, the Hymnal is here accompanied by two other Lutheran devotional works printed by Billmeyer in 1803; the Anhang zu dem Gesangbuch is here in its first edition and the prayerbook Kurze Andachten in its third.
Shaw & Shoemaker 4172; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 572; Arndt, First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 1337. Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 4360; Arndt 1338. Anhang: Shaw & Shoemaker 4171; Arndt 1334. Contemporary sheep, spine with later and sympathetic gilt-stamped title and author labels, binding with brass and leather clasps (intact); leather rubbed and some chipped away with joints open though holding, and spine leather showing some cracking. Front pastedown, free endpaper, and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; back pastedown with later pencilled notation; front free endpaper separated and back free endpaper lacking. Pages age-toned and spotted (as usual in German imprints of this period); some corners dog-eared. One leaf with portion of outer margin torn away, with loss of a few words. Condition actually rather typical, for this sort of volume!
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