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 Sebastian Brant 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 Martin Luther. 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. <w. iio^ocLenji_Hi_pci£i» rerun) Sge-, t^.). Comneni, de OKU religion. (itarumiCAntiquiuE.Tueio-Go' '' ibUCi ibica ,Holn. tit. Ill,Ma' 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.