Department of Printed Books

Acquisitions, German Section

By D. L. Paisey

Lists of notable acquisitions often concentrate on the expensive and rare: this mixed baker's dozen is, on the whole, no exception. Some of the books listed chronologically here are not only rare but unique, some are of obvious historical or scholarly importance, some are beautiful. All are, I hope, interesting; but it must be said that market value is a red herring and helps to deflect enquiry into the old familiar channels, blocking intellectual adventure and ultimately progress. For every book is a concentrate of historical forces and can illuminate its age and those who produced and consumed it. In a great library, collection-building consists mainly of the patient routine of gap-filling, not of unusual expenditure. It is to be hoped that the bread-and-butter purchases many hundreds of times more numerous will be of just as much intellectual value to the library's present and future public.

LocHER, Jacob, called Phtlomusus. De cometa scratching before they are either brought into sub septentrionibus viso aquei coloris, car- the true light of the fifteenth century or cast men. [Augsburg: Hans Froschauer., 1506?]. 4°. into post-incunabular darkness. This one, most recently included in F. R. GofF's Incunabula The humanist Jacob Locher (1471-1528), who in American libraries (3rd census, Millwood, studied under both and Conrad N.Y., 1973), had meanwhile been dated Celtes, and himself taught Thomas Murner, *ca.i5oo' by Zinner and 'after 1500?' by Klebs. wrote educational works, books on rhetoric, My proposed date was arrived at simply. The and edited classical texts, but was most highly work's dedicatee, Erhard Truchsess (von Wetz- regarded by his contemporaries for his verse— hausen). Dean at Eichstatt, took the post in in 1497 he was crowned poet by the Emperor 1503 (Zedler), while Albert IV, Duke of Maximilian I, and is today best remembered Bavaria, named in the text, died in 1508: for his Latin verse translation of Brant's satiri- between these termini, there were three comets cal Narrenschiff, seen in Europe, in 1503, 1505, and 1506. The This little poem on the appearance of a 1505 comet is described by Philipp Carl comet, however, is chiefly remarkable for the [Repertortum der Cometen-Astronomies Munich, trouble it has caused bibliographers, ever since 1864, p. 47) only as large, so that it could have Dietrich Reichling in 1914 {Appendices ad impressed a lay observer, but the more circum- Hamit-Copingeri Repertorium bibliographicum., stantial details quoted for the 1506 comet (it no. 108), locating a copy at the monastery at was observed from Poland from 8-14 August, Einsiedeln, and correctly identifying the starting in the Great Bear) are close enough to printer, suggested for it a date c.i4gS. Undated Locher's sighting near Bootes for four nights: books close to 1500, that magic but meaningless his dedicatory preface is dated 'xvij. Kalendas divide, can cause incunabulists endless head- Septembris' (= 16 August).

82 the Chapter's announcement, promising remis- sion of sins in return for visiting the relics, is reproduced, together with the comments of the Vifo fu't rptfrfca I'lTcc nlctuc1t^a (ConicK probably pseudonymous author, whom at the time several people wrongly took to be . Luther had indeed written an attack on Albert, the 'brothel' at Halle and the associated indulgence trade: Wider den Abgott zu Halle^ but was prevented from publishing it by the Elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, and his friends: his text is now lost. Sttirll's attack did, however, manage to appear in Wittenberg: this is the rare and only edition.

LEUWIS, Dionysius de, de Rickel. Alchoran. CM vcniam.fuc tcmctticid muf f Das ist, des Mahometischen Gesatzbuchs, ISt .fin0C[cmoii|7 vnd Tiirkischen Aberglaubens ynnhalt, vnd ablanung. Strasszburg: bey Hans Schotten^ 1540. fol. This seems to be the first appearance in German of parts of the Koran, albeit only in the negative context of one of the anti-Turkish polemics so common in central Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in response to Turkish expansion. The sixteenth century otherwise The British Library also recently acquired saw complete versions of the Koran in western another work of Locher, written in memory of languages in 1543 (in Latin, printed at Basle) Hedwig Jagellon, Consort of George, Duke of and 1547 (in Italian, printed at Venice). This Bavaria: Threnodia sine funebris lamentatio, in book consists of translated extracts from the laudem Hedutgis cantata [Augsburg: Hans Latin Contra Alchoranum by the theologian Froschauer, 1502]. 40. (C.i7i.bb.i5.) Dionysius the Carthusian (1402-71), printed at Cologne in 1533, some eighty years after its C.io6.d.i3. composition. The German translator is not named, but may well have been Heinrich von STUERLL, Lignacius, pseud.? Glosse, des Eppendorff, a friend of Hutten and opponent hochgelarten Ablas der tzu Hall in Sachsen. of Erasmus, who in the years 1534-51 translated [Wittenberg: Nickel Schirlentz, 1521]. 4°. various works into German for Strasburg presses, and indeed features as translator and This is a satire against the Chapter of the anthologist in another anti-Turkish work from Collegiate Church at Halle, and implicitly the Schott press in the same year as this one, against Cardinal Albert (of Brandenburg), 1540. The woodcuts on the title-page are by Archbishop and Elector of Mainz, who had Hans Wechtlin. just established a collection of relics there with the aim of increasing his income. The text of C.io3.i.i6. en urcfifcfjen

.Srep^eft eff.itfj. jar. COLERUS, Godefredus. Der vom Vater gege- tur. Helmestadii: ex officina Henningi MuUeri., bene Raht des Heils, bey Leichbestattung 1661. 4". Dieterichs von dem Werder gepredigt. Cothen: The only known copy of the second earliest gedruckt in der Furstlichen Druckerey von Jacob surviving German book auction catalogue, Branden, [1658J. 4". which records the sale on 23 September 1661 A memorial anthology of prose and verse by of the unbound stock of the Brunswick book- various authors on the occasion of the funeral seller Gottfried Miiller. It appropriately joins of the German poet Dietrich von dem Werder the only known copy of the earliest German (1584-1657), a stylistic innovator best known book auction catalogue, also in the British for his translations of Tasso and Ariosto. The Library, which lists Miiller's bound stock, and texts here include his own confession of faith, the sale took place in 1659. Both auctions were written in 1626, and shortly to be published held in the University of Helmstedt. The in an edition of Werder's smaller works. This present catalogue's importance for historians is the only copy so far recorded. of the scholarly booktrade is much enhanced C,io6.b.25. because it is an interleaved auctioneer's copy, with buyers' names and prices in manuscript. MUELLER, Gottfried, Bookseller., of Brunswick. Until its appearance in the London saleroom Catalogus librorum incompactorum Gotho- from which it was purchased, the catalogue fredi MuUeri qui auctioni publicse subjicien- was known to have existed only from secondary

(oOU CrlHDiiE. Hebe, tt: ini icioeHrmm. Hcln.

17. Suiiorlii miniulc Hebraicum »,*• ft Oaldiic. Balil, if6. Bcllcrmuniani Dilcuilul AcX- (fcmiti Frinckf, tu. IS17. BilUrmjiii de Scripcorib, Ec- 17; Iciibldi f iKijni):iu pars gc- (Icfiid. lib I Col. i4i. ncril. dc .^,-'i,i[u& ejui •cLribu- >fl. Atidairinoiic Corn, Ticii.Hs- , III. len. ti4. nor.ic. Ejufil. animadvcrC ic Cur- Ha. Marciiii Polilic lj'l> f;t. tium. Hi, Liiiii. Vxi.ii C piudcDiilin i$p. Aildmus dc vjtii Gernianoruni dirtifiinii gencril. «/i. Thfologorum ad arnom (i/,Fri' cof. »fj lOB. Hcrodiiiii Hiftor, lib.B. Ar- gcrc. ij+. toi, Bclliririus dc principum libc' nt Tducindij. BiTiI, Criuiatiul dcopiimo Scnacore. r Ofiitu enfli. uiiegptitr, pot- 3O2.Gilcnii (riniuphus Succicus d: mil.:, pirt Jrriritff. *..*, Potoniaac Bomffla fub jugitl. tf.MurcriOriuan. \o\. i.Cc! tit. *r*. ? S'f^iinW 0tij!l, ^JU^ OPdil, ic; OuihberlctiClironologii.Am- ftcld. *j«. S. BuLhnen diircrtation, Acliic- 104. Hrmdoii hidor.lib ;. it. libcl. mica:. VViiicli. ijt. de liciHoineri. Franckf tu. f. Sii[urarii PLyfiior Ati/lottl, io\. Kcntineri Iiincririum Ger- Stjiigtr. Ill), ^, Im, »n. it Wita- man CaJlii.Anglic,& Italii.No- phyT Anltoc. iib.i jb, t,4. tib. ilf. ii. SvKirffii Inllirulicin Ltyic* it. 106 Hcii]in]nniEiiropa,Hclinf1.««>. l,lciaph) f. t«mpUfi),,vVil[[b. Ejufd. CaltHina, ib. t 3O7.Kcmptus dc onginc, liiu> qui- lititcA: quantit, iriliz Colon. icb. tft. log.lnipfriiOricntalis & Occident. 191 tjuAl di(Tcrcac. Jc Scmint tt, Hiltoria at> anno Chr, ij;o. ad trafui, dc fiirmjtioni honiir.is ann ifioij, 609. in uiero. ib. tji. iDp. Lanfiii Confulcacio de Trin- Iff it. ilurmK. de TrjJufc. It.ile- tipatu inccr Provincui turopz. hnCiottiSu. dc oijgincformi- Tubing, tj!. rum- VVicr.

Mueller, Catalogus librorum^ 1661

85 sources (cf. Hans Dieter Gebauer; Bucher- Captain Cook's first circumnavigation (1768- auktionen in Deutschland im ij. Jahrhundert^ 71), in a copy from the library of the great Bonn, 1981). German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumen- bach (1752-1840). At the end is printed a long and highly interesting, but anonymous, letter addressed to the also anonymous English trans- [HAMANN, Johann Georg, the Younger.^ So- lator. An inscription in Blumenbach's hand on kratische Denkwurdigkeiten fur die lange the flyleaf ascribes this thirty-page letter to his Weile des Publicums zusammengetragen von friend Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-98), who einem Liebhaber der langen Weile. Amsterdam was shortly to accompany Cook on his second [or rather, Komgsberg: Hartung\ 1759. 8*^. voyage as naturalist in place of Joseph Banks. The first important work of Hamann (1730-88), This circumstantial text is a previously un- a key figure in the anti-rationalist stream in known and important addition to the Forster German philosophy, written shortly after a literature: an edition is expected from a German meeting with Kant. It is about the grandeur Cook scholar. and the inevitable fate at the hands of the State of unorthodox, 'subversive', thought. Hamann's own unorthodoxy, measured against the beliefs of the Enlightenment, was rooted CATALOGUS bibliothecae Bornianae publica in a kind of Christianity, to which he had auctione vendetur die 10 Novembris 1791. become Converted' during a visit to London Viennae, 1791. 8". in 1757-8 through reading the Bible (probably The catalogue of the sale by auction of the in English). His complex views cannot be library of Baron Ignaz von Born (1742-91). encapsulated in a few words, but in particular After a brief period as a Jesuit, Born studied his emphasis on individual genius had through law, and then devoted himself to science, Herder a profound influence on Goethe, the notably mineralogy and mining technology. He 'Sturm und Drang', and the German Roman- was also Vienna's leading Freemason, and tics, though they conveniently overlooked his was the model for Schikaneder's High Priest theology. His style is strange, compressed and Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute. The books gnomic (Goethe called it 'sibylline', though in this catalogue show in their variety the some of his own early prose echoes the ecstatic breadth of his interests. They include a German ring of Hamann's); and his books seem rare, description, pubhshed in 1764, ofthe then very but the British Library was recently able to new British Museum and Sir Hans Sloane's acquire another also: Leser und Kunstrichter natural history collections, as well as Tristram nach perspectivischem Unebenmaasse [Konigs- Shandy and the works of Swift, both in English. berg, 1762]. 8*^. (C.io6.b.2i), on the primacy One title {La femme n^est pas inferieure d of imagination in art. Fhomwe., Londres [Amsterdam], 1750) makes one wonder whether or not he shared the male chauvinism of his operatic counterpart. ENDEAVOUR, H.M.S. Nachricht von den 1578/274. neuesten Entdeckungen der Englander in der Sud-See: oder Auszug aus dem Tagebuch des konigl. Schiffs The Endeavour. Berlin: Haude CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de. Leben (^ Spener^ \']'}i. 8°. und Thaten des scharfsinnigen Edlen Don Quixote. Ubersetzt von Ludwig Tieck. Berlin: The German translation of the first account of Johann Friedrich Unger., 1799-1801. 4 Bd. 8*^. 86 With this copy ofthe extremely rare first edition of the German translation of Don Quixote by um fi'ifit fic ibii( J. L. Tieck (1773-1853), the British Library fe vsxxb ft giun, fills, after more than a century, the last major ft> voird cr frnippir(, gap in its unrivalled holdings of the German romantic writer, and translator of Shakespeare, Tieck, much of whose library was acquired by the British Museum. Adolf Asher, the remark- able Berlin bookseller instrumental in so many ofthe Museum's exceptionally rich acquisitions of continental literature in the mid nineteenth century, who was to sell Tieck's books at the end of 1849 (including his fine collections of Spanish drama ofthe Golden Age), earlier that year spoke the following words in his evidence to the British Parliamentary Commissioners then investigating the running of the British Museum: '[Tieck] has made a complete collec- tion of Spanish literature, particularly of the drama, and all the editions of Don Quixote^ which he has translated—his translation o^ Don Quixote is the best extant' {Parliamentary Papers., Reports Commissioners., 1850, vol. xxiv, p. 438). It is curious that Tieck himself apparently did not possess this one of his own Busch, Stippstorcheny [1881] first editions, though the second and third editions are in the sale catalogue of his library, of which the British Library holds a copy (822.b.8) inscribed to the Trustees of the the world has been linked to Schopenhauer's British Museum 'by their most obliged, humble pessimism. This book contains a lyric and six servant A. Asher': obliged he certainly was, by stories in verse with his own illustrations, and a mutually beneficial partnership with the was the only one to be printed in colour (as Museum. C.io6.b.i6. opposed to having colour subsequently applied by hand). No one who has visited the splendid Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hanover, his home town, can have failed to respond to his endear- BuscH, Wilhelm. Stippstorchen fiir Aeuglein ing personality. The illustration comes from und Oehrchen. Miinchen: Fr. Bassermann^ The two sisters, in which the good girl kisses a [1881]. 28 cm. frog who turns into a prince, while the bad one suffers the reverse fate. The children's books ofthe humorist and artist Wilhelm Busch (1832-1908) swiftly achieved international fame, the best known being prob- ably Max und Moritz (Munich, 1865). The APULEIUS, Lucius, Madaurensis. Amor und critical stance of the born caricaturist appears Psyche. Aus dem Lateinischen von Reinhold here in its most positive light as provoker of Jachmann. Illustrirt in 46 Original- laughter, but his basically sceptical view of Radirungen und ornamentirt von Max Apuleius, Amor und Psyche., [1881] Klinger. Munchen: Theo. Stroefer's Kunst- that all art is the same and speaks the same verlag., [1881]. 36 cm. language'. An extraordinarily beautiful book which has been taken as the starting-point of modern EuLENBERG, Herbert. Anna Boleyn. Original- German book illustration. The artist Max lithographien von Lovis Corinth. Berlin: Klinger (1857-1920) dedicated the book to Verlag Fritz Gurlitt., 1920, 57 cm. (Die neuen Brahms, whose music finds a harmonious Bilderbiicher. Folge 3.) No, 8 of fifty copies counterpart in the heavy sensuality of these with three extra lithographs, and of the ten early Klinger engravings. I do not think one copies with all full-page illustrations signed should push the analogy too far, but Klinger by the artist. clearly felt close to this particular composer's works, and subsequently produced a suite of In September and October 1920, when the engravings entitled Brahms-Phantasie. Brahms director Ernst Lubitsch was filming Anna himself wrote, in a letter to Klinger dated 29 Boleyn., which inspired this work of the drama- December 1893: 'Sometimes I feel inclined to tist Eulenberg (1876-1949), at the U,F.A, envy your ability to be more precise with your studios in Berlin, the artist Lovis Corinth pencil, sometimes to be glad that I do not need (1858-1925) sketched the actors and scenes for to be, but in the end I find myself thinking his highly atmospheric lithographs. The role

Photograph of Jannings as Henry VIII Henny Porten: Jannings as Henry VIII (from Jannings's autobiography) Lovis Corinth: Jannings as Henry VIII of Henry VIII had been written for the great talkies, and Anna Boleyn., retitled Deception., stage and screen actor Emil Jannings, probably ran for several months on Broadway. best known in England now for his first 'talkie', C.i8o.k.5. Der blaue Engel (1929), in which he played opposite Marlene Dietrich. In his autobio- COLOGNE, Internationale Presse-Ausstellung, graphy (1951), Jannings wrote of his Henry, 1928. Union der Sozialistischen Sowjet- whom he took considerable pains to make a Republiken. Katalog des Sowjet-Pavillons. three-dimensional character: 'It was perhaps (Umschlag, Typo- und Photogestaltung: El the first time ever that a figure was created on Lissitzky.) Koln., [1928]. 21 cm. film able to bear comparison with great por- trayals on the stage'. Anne Boleyn was played The Russian constructivist designer and by Henny Porten, a favourite star ofthe period, typographer Lissitzky (i 890-1941) both who as an amateur artist also sketched Jannings coordinated the displays and designed the as Henry during filming, and pubhshed the catalogue for the Soviet pavilion at 'Pressa', the drawing, together with one of Corinth painting international press exhibition at Cologne in her portrait, in her book Vom ^Kintopp^ zum the Spring of 1928. Emphasis was placed on the Tonjilm (Dresden, 1932). Silent films could role of the press as a mass educator, and bold reach a much wider international public than and striking new visual techniques created a

SOWJETPRESSE

MASSEN

°"SOWJET.UNION

AUFZUBAUEN

HIER

S£HEN SIE IN EINER TYPOGRAPHISCHEN KINOSCHAU DEN INHALT DES SOWJETPAVILLONS VORUBERZIEHEN 16 strong and lively impression. The catalogue new technology were united in service to an too puts across with great verve the consider- overriding ideological commitment. This able achievements of the early Soviet press, German catalogue usefully supplements the using a combination of functional typography library's existing Lissitzky holdings, some and photo-montage. Lissitzky's strength was being amongst recent acquisitions of Russian in layout rather than in typography in the futurist material. narrow sense, and his skills with shapes and

NOTES ON OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS

URSULA BAURMEISTER: Conservateur at the Reserve des Imprimes, Bibliotheque Nationale, . JANET ING: Special Collections Librarian at Mills College, Oakland, California. EBERHARD KONIG: Assistant Professor at the Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universitat, Berlin. W. J. PARTRIDGE: Printer, Perdix Press.

92