Tag: rare german book

October 10, 2011

THE FIRST STUDY OF EUROPEAN CABINETS OF CURIOSITIES

EXTREMELY RARE: ‘the single most valuable contribution to Wunderkammer studies’

PRINTED 1716: WITH 30 PLATES

EAST INDIAN BOTANY, UNICORNS & SERPENTS, FOSSILS & COINS

 

The Book:

Michael Bernhard VALENTINI; Joannes Conradus Becker. Historia simplicium reformata, sub Musei Muscorum . Francofurti ad Moenum : Ex Officina Zunneriana, apud Johannem Adamum Jungium, 1716. COMPLETE. [26], 664, [16] p., illustrated with 30 leaves of plates (5 folded) : ill. ; FOLIO, A TALL COPY. 365 x 220 mm. Contemporary English paneled Calf and Gilt with slight bumping to head and foot, and wear to head, some toning, but overall a handsome complete copy. First Edition in Latin. Nissen BBI 2036; Pritzel 328. [SOLD]

Michael Bernhard Valentini (1657 – 1729) was a German doctor and a collector. He had an important Cabinet of curiosities and was the author of Museorum Museum, the first study of collections in Europe. The work for sale here is the first Latin translation by Johann Conrad Becker and edited by Christoph Vern. Valentini (the author’s son) under the title Historia simplicium reformata. It covers plants, animals, minerals and metals and their commercial and medical uses, rocks and minerals, fossils, East Indian and tropical plants, shells, unicorns and monstrosities, coffee, tobacco, tea, cacaa, vanilla, serpents, and even coins.

The Museum Museorum’ is ‘the single most valuable contribution to Wunderkammer studies’. It records and reprints many European collection that are otherwise unobtainable now through any other source. It also contains one of the earliest and most important treatises devoted to cinnamon: Johann Georg Dexbach’ Disput. medica inaug. de Casia Cinnamomea et Malabathro.

posted in: Rare Books

April 28, 2011

A Fundamental Document of Jewish Relations with the State and a major work of Anti-semitic Literature

PRINTED 1614: The Extremely Rare FIRST OFFICIAL EDITION of Stättigkeit and Ordnung

The Book:

Der Juden zu Franckfurt Stättigkeit und Ordnung, wie die selbe so wol von uhralten Jahren hero, als hernacher biß auff das Jahr 1613 gefunden worden. Franckfurt am Mayn, 1614. Small FOLIO, 30.3 cm x 197. COMPLETE. A handsome, wide-margined copy; light toning as usual throughout, later boards and vellum spine. Provenance: From the renowned Charles E. Weber Library. Extremely Rare. No copies sold in 30 Years of the ABPC Auction Records

FIRST OFFICIAL PRINTED EDITION after the unofficial pirated 1613 tract, and a fundamental document of Jewish relations with the State and the place of minority rights in general. While the Jews generally had lived under their own laws and administration, in response to the Frankfurt Guilds demands for increased power and rights at the expense of Jewish economic freedom and community’s rights, the Stättigkeit and Ordnung were issued to regulate and restrict Jewish behavior. The clear rejection in these ordinances of the Imperial privileges and protections granted to the City, culminated in the notorious Fettmilch Rebellion and a pogrom in the city’s Jewish ghetto. The inhabitants of the Judengasse were driven out whilst their houses were plundered and destroyed. Their forced expulsion was short-lived however, and their return in 1614 after the Fettmich Rebellion represented the first time most Christian commentators had supported the Jewish community, noting the distinction and just separation of economic and political rights and religion. Interestingly, the great symbols of anti-semitism and Jewish persecution, the tall conical hat and the yellow badge sewn to clothing, are notably illustrated on page 8 and the title page respectively.

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posted in: Rare Books