Tag Archives: Augsburg

Anno 1664 Den. 18. Decembris…

18 Monday Dec 2017

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Who vagrant transitory comets sees,
Wonders because they’re rare; but a new star
Whose motion with the firmament agrees,
Is miracle; for there no new things are. — John Donne

Anno 1664 den. 18. Decembris…
Martin Zimmermann
Augsburg?: M. Zimmerman, 1664
QB724 Z55 1664

Broadside giving an account of a comet seen in Augsburg, December 18, 1664 with a drawing of its path through the sky. This comet was seen every night across Europe between 14th and 24th December 1664, reaching its perigree on December 18th (December 28th by the Gregorian calendar). The comet was one of the brightest of the time and reported by many including Samuel Pepys, Samuel Danforth, Giovanni Borelli, Robert Hooke, and John Dryden. It was seen again in January 1665, and was last seen in March 1665. The bird represents the constellation of Corvus (the raven). Modern astronomers have designated the 1664-5 comet as C/1664 W1.

Book of the Week — A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children

31 Monday Jul 2017

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BS560-H54-1818-pg32spread
“…so also can nothing be more unprofitable, than the too customary mode of charging the infant memory with verses, or even chapters of abstract doctrines, or passages, about the true meaning of which, schoolmen themselves have hitherto been divided in opinion.” — from the Preface

A New Hieroglyphical Bible, for the Amusement and Instruction of Children
Alexander Anderson (1775-1870)
New York: Published by Samuel Wood & Sons, And Samuel W. Wood & Co…Baltimore, 1818
BS560 H54 1818

Hieroglyphic Bibles were a natural development from emblem books, in which often complex visual images served as emblems for intellectual or aesthetic ideas presented as moral or religious lessons. The first one was published in Augsburg in 1687. French and Dutch editions followed in the eighteenth century. The first English edition appeared fairly late, but it was followed by at least thirteen other editions before the end of the eighteenth century. The first American hieroglyphic Bible was published in 1788 by Isaiah Thomas.

Alexander Anderson has been called the father of wood engraving in America, and was certainly one of its masters. His work included prints, almanacs, fiction, travel, children’s books, Bibles, religious tracts, medical texts, and broadsides.

BS560-H54-1818-title

Book of the Week – Quadragesimale Nouum…de filio prodigo

23 Monday Jun 2014

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Quadragesimale Nouum…de filio prodigo…
Johannes Meder
Basel: Michael Furter, 1494
Editio princips
BX1756 M43 Q4 1494

Johannes Meder’s collection of fifty sermons on the New Testament story of the Prodigal Son is introduced by his close friend Sebastian Brandt. In Brandt’s verse, the Prodigal Son and his guardian angel discuss whoring, gaming, cruelty to the poor and other disturbing issues of the time. Meder wrote, “One must know first the illness, which one intends to heal.” The subject must have been quite compelling – a second edition was printed by Michael Wenssler, also of Basel, in 1497.

Born in Augsburg, Michael Furter (d. 1516/17) was in Basel by 1483, when he bought a house there. He began printing at least at early as 1489. He added bookbinding and then accounting to his trades after his printshop ran into financial difficulties. Furter printed mostly grammars and theology. Although he was financially unsuccessful as a printer, his fairly large number of books were known for their beautiful woodcut ornamentation and illustrations. This work contains eighteen full-page woodcuts. Gothic type, printer’s device.

The University of Utah copy was once owned by Robert Chambers (1802-1871). Chambers anonymously published Vestiges, a Victorian-era best-seller that posited a theory of evolution before Charles Darwin published his ground-breaking thesis. Chambers and Darwin were correspondents.

Chambers and his brother began their careers as publishers and authors when they set up an antiquarian bookshop using their father’s own collection of books. This copy was also part of the library of John William Willis-Bund (1843-1928), a writer on the history of the church in Wales. Evidence of this provenance is the bookplates of both of these men attached within the book.

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Book of the Week – Sententiarum Libri IV

17 Monday Dec 2012

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Sententiarum Libri IV
Petrus Lombardus (ca. 1100-1160)
Nuremberg: A. Koberger, 1500
BX1749 P4 1500

Petrus Lombardus (Peter Lombard) was a Medieval French theologian. He taught at the Cathedral school of Notre Dame and towards the end of his life became Bishop of Rome. Written between 1148 and 1151, Sententiarum is a collection of teachings of the Church Fathers. In it Lombardus recognized the role of reason in theology. Until the sixteenth century it was the official textbook of theology in many universities. Hundreds of scholars wrote commentaries on it, among them Thomas Aquinas, Albert Magnus, and Bonaventura. Despite its great influence, the work itself is unoriginal, but it was among the very first attempts to present Christian theology in a systematized form. This edition was printed by Anton Koberger, a significant early printer. Koberger published more than two hundred editions. Because Sententiarum was used as a textbook, it has no decorative initials or other ornaments. This folio is bound in contemporary calf over oak boards, with blind-stamped panels on the sides. The binding is decorated with a roll depicting a hunting scene. The lining papers consist of proof sheets from Boethius’s De Institutione Arithmetica, printed at Augsburg in 1486. These sheets consist of four pages of the book and include diagrams and tables. The proofs are printed on the back of proofs of another and unidentified book. A manuscript note on the title page suggests that it at once belonged to the monastic library of St. Elizabeth at Brescia.