Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

Lectionum memorabilium et reconditarium centenarii XVI (Memorable Lessons and a Storehouse of the Sixteenth Century)... Tomus primus [-secundus] [BOUND WITH] Index absolutissimus

Lauingen: Leonhard Rheinmichel & Jacob Winter, 1600. First edition. Hardcover. Three parts in two volumes, published between 1600 and 1608, folio: I. [rev. parens]-3[rev. parens]6 A-3Z6 4A-4O6 4P8 (T4 signed S4) (= 524 leaves); [36], 1012pp.; II. [rev. parens]6 2[rev. parens]4 a-z6 2a7 2b-4v6 4x4 (4g2 signed 4g3; blank 4x4) (= 549 leaves); [20], 288pp., 286-1074pp., [2 blank]pp.; III. A2 B-R4 S6 (= 72 leaves); [144 index]pp. Elaborate woodcut titles in each volume, with author’s portrait verso; over 400 woodcut text vignettes of various sizes by Jost Amman and others; text within single ruled border. Contemporary vellum, central ornament stamped in blind; spine with raised bands, later morocco lettering pieces; edges stained red. Some chipping to the delicate vellum at the spines. A few skillful old marginal repairs; tear at one corner and punctures at one leaf with loss of several letters, else a fine, amply margined set, attractively bound.

First edition of this elaborately illustrated universal history, complete with the (often missing) 144-page double column index prepared by Johannes Jacobus Linsius and issued in 1608 by Jacob Winter. Assembled from various historical sources in chronicle arrangement by the jurist, diplomat, translator, historian and theologian Johann Wolf (1537-1600), the text includes church histories side-by-side with scandalous anecdotes, often illustrated with satirical woodcuts, many of which are by Jakob Lederlein, who also prepared the elaborate title borders (Nagler). The first volume treats the period through the year 1500; the second brings us up to the author’s era in 1600. The fine woodcuts (with some repeats) include the sets from Jost Amman’s costume book, Trachtenbuch der kathol Geistlichkeit, along with a very attractive series of 32 numbered emblems (vol. 2: pp.485-502). A notorious anti-semitic image of the Judensau is reproduced under the year 1596 (vol. 2: p.1031) in the notice of a broadside published by Wolfgang Meissner that year: “Effigies monumenti, in reproborum Rabinorum & Iudaeorum apostatarum, confusionem & ignominiam, ad Witebergensis Templi oppidani murum versus ortum antiquitus positi.” Dating from 1305, the relief appears on the façade of the church where Martin Luther preached, the Stadtkirche of Wittenberg. Wolf devotes more than two full pages of text to an analysis of the image, which is also described in detail by Luther in his anti-Jewish polemic Von Schem Hamphoras (1543). Nearly Fine. Item #49130

Expanded title and imprint: Lectionum memorabilium et reconditarium centenarii XVI. Habet hic lector doctorum Ecclesiae, vatum, politicorum, philosophorum, historicorum, aliorumq[ue] sapientum & eruditorum pia, gravia, mira, arcana, & stupenda; iucunda simul & utilia, dicta, scripta, atq[ue] facta... typos insuper, picturas, atq[ue] imagines: Tomus primus [-secundus, bound with:] Index Absolutiss[imus]..., Lauingae: Excudebat M. Iacobus Winter, [1608].

References: Adams W236. BM STC (German), 927. Becker, Jost Amman, 131. B. Lawn, Catalogus Bibliothecae Lawnianae, 172. Nagler 3:2270. VD16 W4211.

Price: $2,750.00

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