The double-page illustration is in color; it is of Münster and its churches and is dated April, 1748. The style is archaic and reminiscent of that used in the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Following Kerssenbroch's treatise are a number of leaves containing transcription of Latin documents from the 15th century and earlier.

The bulk of the text is written on paper with a fool's cap watermark and the counter mark “IV.” The hand is large and legible; the margins are generous.

Binding: Contemporary German half vellum with mottled paper sides (in shades of white, blue-green, and red); neat gilt leather title-label on spine, and all edges carmine.

Provenance:  Ex–Crozer Theological Library; then to Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; deaccessioned.

•  On Kerssenbroch, see Catholic Encyclopedia (online). Volume bound as above; old bookplate and marks as per provenance. Text clean, ink good, and paper excellent.  (26020)

All 16th-century editions are scarce. Via NUC, OCLC and RLIN we locate only this copy of this edition (now deaccessioned) and that at Princeton.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed sheep over wooden boards with partially bevelled edges. Elaborately blind-embossed with a roll and a center panel ornament. Front cover with initials “H. S.” and date “1597” in gilt. Rear cover with gilt putti in the areas where initials and the date appear on the front.

Evidence of readership: Marginalia in the prefatory index; very scattered early underscoring.

•  VD16 A969; Goedeke, II, 8. Binding as above, lacking clasps and with old paper spine label; ex-library with bookplate and call number in old, faded, white numbering on spine. Title-page browned and tipped in; loss of paper to fore- and bottom margins of same. Some age-toning to paper and several leaves with natural paper flaws, repaired with archival tissue; three other leaves also with natural paper flaws repaired at time of binding or shortly after printing. Approximately 12 leaves with inkstains, sometimes obscuring text. One leaf (178) with a hole costing a significant loss of text. A marginally acceptable copy as regards text, in a good binding.

Click any image for an enlargement.

The work is highly illustrated and the engravings, being16 folding maps/plans, and 18 folding plates, are of battles, plans of fortresses, maps of areas, statutes, etc. Three double-page engraved tables are of scripts. The in-text illustrations, which are just as detailed and impactful, are numerous.

An important book on the rising Dutch presence in the East Indies and concomitant diminution of the Portuguese hegemony. This is the first edition in German; a Dutch-language edition also appeared in 1672.

•  Landwehr, VOC, 557. 18th-century calf, gilt spine extra. Binding shows wear, with abrasions and leather lost; joints starting. Once in a library and bearing the odd pencilling, but no stamps. Clean copy.

Binding:  Publisher's lavender paper–covered light boards, covers framed in purple floral roll, spine with purple roll and all edges gilt.

•  Lightly rubbed, lightly faded, paper mostly lost from spine. Front hinge (inside) cracked, sewing loosening, free endpapers lacking. Light staining to upper outer corners of first and last few leaves, only; otherwise clean. We judge that the rarity of this little book and its “siblings” is the direct result of inherent fragility!  (27192)

Click the title-page image for an enlargement.

The main title-page is printed in black and red, the text in black letter (i.e., gothic, fraktur) and the footnotes in roman.

•  Contemporary vellum over paste boards; later paper spine label with hand lettering; small area of lower spine with black spots. Vellum loosening at the turn-ins. Board edges soiled. Few stray stains in some margins. Private bookplate.

We locate fewer than ten copies, one of which is now missing. The work was written to be a potboiler and was read to death in the German as well as the English editions.

•  Evans 30324; Sabin 19130 & 98450; Seidensticker, First Century of German Printing in America, 145; Arndt & Eck, German Language Printing in the U.S., 1045. Not in Wright, American Fiction.   Modern wrappers. Title-page and p. 82 with bug-spotting; text age-toned and with staining; fore- and upper margins of pp. 77–80 with short tears and some crumpling. Minor worming in some lower margins, not taking text. Pp. 81/82, and final leaf offering advertising, in excellent facsimile. Housed in a gray cloth clamshell case with red leather spine label.  (26968)

Provenance:  Front cover gilt-stamped M.K./S.W.M./1828. Front fly-leaf with attractively inked presentation inscription in German, signed Sophie Wiedemann in Lobitz and dated 1828, above additional inscriptions dated 1879, 1886, and 1938, the latter in English; back fly-leaf with inked prayer in Wiedemann's hand, above a later inked prayer in English, dated 1984.

Binding:  Contemporary varnished red paper, covers framed in gilt roll, covers and spine with floral designs painted in shades of pink, green, and yellow., front cover with gilt-stamping as above. All edges gilt, and gauffered at corners and at the spine. Pastedowns of light blue and red paste-paper.

The binding is highly reminiscent of a “peasant” binding, but clearly is not one as these are generally understood: It is not vellum, not embossed; but yes, it is definitely handpainted and folk-art inspired. A variant.

•  Binding as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine faded with paper chipped at joints, head, and foot, partially exposing binding structure, front joint cracked. Free endpapers lacking; fly-leaves with inscriptions as above. Sewing loosening, with some signatures slightly proud and others just starting to separate. A few instances of dried plant matter laid in, including three four-leaf clovers. Occasional spots of minor foxing; one small ink stain affecting two leaves but not obscuring text. Some corners bumped. A multi-generational heirloom devotional, still lovely, and a very appealing example of such.  (29894)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with ownership inscription by Henry Binkly, dated 1833; several laid-in slips of paper include a recipe for hair dye and a concoction involving sulphur, sugar of lead, and bay rum.

•  Shoemaker 8591; First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S., 2565. Contemporary sheep framed in blind, spine with blind-ruled raised bands, abraded but solid. One clasp lacking, one present and working. Moderate foxing; one sectional title with pencilled annotations. Clearly a volume that saw both use and reasonable care. Plain, and pleasing.

The present two works of preachings are scarce in the U.S., with only two institutions reporting ownership of Sechsz Christlicher Leichpredigen (one copy now deaccessioned) and only one reporting ownership of Ein Christliche predig (that copy also deaccessioned). The Sechsz Christlicher Leichpredigen ends with a two and a half pagepoem by the Dutch humanist and poet Hannard Gamerius, Eisengrein’s colleague at Ingolstadt, where Gamerius taught Greek.

Each work has its title-page printed in red and black; the printing throughout is neat and typical.

•  Sechsz: VD16 E817; Index Aurel. 159.363. Ein: VD16 E789; Index Aurel. 159.362.   Full dark modern calf old style, with simple blind double fillets bordering covers and a chain rule as vertical accent towards spine; spine without labels and with gilt-touched raised bands accented by blind rules extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils. Text unmarked; light overall age-toning.  (26143)

Click the images for enlargements.

Provenance? We can offer no names on this one, butit was probably a woman's copy, as the rear free endpaper has the colorful round labels from thirteen spools of thread pasted in!

•  Hymnal: Shaw & Shoemaker 31426; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2032. Kurze Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 31686; Arndt, The First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 2034.   Contemporary sheep over wooden boards, spine with raised bands and later spine labels; brass clasps present and working, but front cover off and volume abraded, especially in top spine compartment damaged where there is significant loss of leather. Spots of browning throughout as usual in German imprints of this period, not worse and indeed better than is often the case; indeed in its way a nice copy, save for that detached cover that basically halves the price!  (26967)