
GERMAN-LANGUAGE BOOKS
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Adventures of Telemachus in
Six Languages
Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe-. Télémaque polyglotte, contenant les six langues européennes les plus usitées: Le français, l'anglais, l'allemand, l'italien, l'espagnol et le portugais. Paris: Baudry (Imprimerie de Casimir), 1837. Long 8vo (24.3 cm, 9.5"). Frontis., [4], 380 ff.
$250.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Uncommon first edition thus of Fénelon's classically inspired attack on the French monarchy, with a frontispiece portrait of the author signed in the plate by Geoffroy. The text is printed in three columns per page, inside decorative borders, with all six languages running parallel on double-page spreads.
Brunet, II, 1217; Graesse 565. Contemporary quarter tan textured cloth with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; rubbed with cloth chipped and pulled at spine head, label darkened, front hinge tender and front free endpaper lacking. Half-title, title-page, and first text page with private collector's decorative rubber-stamp; one leaf with short tear from upper margin, not touching text and a few corners dog-eared. Light to moderate foxing, most notably to frontispiece and title-page.
An interesting production! (24899)
Joseph
& the
COATof
MANY
Colors — Illustrations
PRINTED
in Color
Die
Geschichte Joseph's und seiner Brüder. Eine biblische Erzähtung.
Harrisburg, PA: G.S. Peters, 1835. 12mo (14.2 cm, 5.5"). 18 pp.; col. illus.
[SOLD]
Scarce early edition, likely the first, of this juvenile version of the story of Joseph. This toybook is illustrated with
15 color-printed wood engravings and a color-printed title-page vignette, making this one of the earliest such American works. Gustav Sigismund Peters (1793–1847), who emigrated from Saxony to the U.S. in the early 1820s, was a major printer of ephemera, children's books, and other reading matter for the Pennsylvania Dutch; his color printing here is neatly and skillfully accomplished.
Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only four copies of this 1835 edition.
Not in American Imprints; not in Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books. Publisher's printed paper wrappers, browned and tattered with edge tears and chips, spine clumsily resewn at a later date. Pages darkened and spotted, corners bumped.
Clearly read, but intact and unmarred by childish hand. (24673)

Beautifully
Bound &
Illustrated FRENCH
GOETHE
“Tr.
by Mme. Bachellery”
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Les souffrances du jeune Werther. Tr. by Mme. Bachellery. Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1886. 8vo.
$1500.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
NOT in German, but surely this belongs here? The edition is limited
to 220, this one of 10 on papier du Japon. Illustrated with eaux-fortes
by Lalauze, and each plate
present
in four states.

Binding: Bound by Lortic
Frères in red morocco with filigree gilt tooling on covers and in spine
compartments; a gilt rose also in each spine compartment.
Blue morocco in-laid doublures, turquoise watered silk endpapers, and marbled
fly-leaves; very wide turn-ins with gilt dentelles. All edges gilt over marbling.
A copy in lovely condition, imperceptibly rebacked with the
original spine retained. Original wrappers bound in. Protected in a crimson
morocco-edged slipcase.
A
PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”
for others, click
here.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, & Johann Peter Eckermann. Specimens of foreign standard literature... vol. IV. containing conversations with Goethe, from the German of Eckermann. Boston: Hilliard, Gray, & Co., 1839. 12mo (20.3 cm, 8"). xxvi, [2], 414, [2 (blank)] pp.
$1000.00

Another not in German! but properly appearing here . First edition of a significant first English translation, as well as the first book published by Margaret Fuller, Marchioness Ossoli. The fourth volume of George Ripley’s “Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature” series, this was both translated from the original German and introduced by Fuller, the extraordinary American author, critic, philosopher, and feminist. Fuller was throughout her career greatly interested in Goethe and his works; here she thoughtfully and sensitively both translates and edits Goethe’s thoughts as recorded by Eckermann, whose role in regards to the great German author was much like Boswell’s to Johnson (though Fuller proclaims on p. ix that Eckermann “is not ridiculous, like Boswell, for no vanity or littleness sullies his sincere enthusiasm”).
Click the title-page for an enlargement.
NSTC 2F18403; Sabin 71523 (series described in note). Later pebbled cloth, spine with printed paper label; cloth slightly worn over extremities and just starting to split over front joint, spine label darkened and with upper portion chipped. Spots of faint to mild foxing.
Goettinger Taschen Calender vom Jahr 1790. Göttingen: Johann Christian Dieterich, [1790]. 16mo (10.3 cm, 4.1"). Engr. t.-p., [27] ff., 227, [5] pp.; 38 plts.
[SOLD]
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
1790 edition in this popular and long-running pocket almanac series. This example provides much entertaining and informative reading, and is illustrated
with copperplates by famed painter and engraver Daniel Chodowiecki as well as with other engraved plates, including a series of images from works by William
Hogarth, engraved by Ernest Ludwig Riepenhausen. Like most of the Göttingen almanacs, this issue contains a Taschenbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen
section, with separate title-page in this case marked “fürs Jahr 1790.”
Contemporary thin vellum over paste boards stained shades of rose and blue, covers framed in elegant gilt roll with central gilt-stamped floral decoration, spine with hand-inked date. Vellum chipped over corners and spine extremities, gilt somewhat dimmed, still charming; pastedowns of handmade paste paper in rose and all edges gilt. Some instances of faint spotting, mostly but not entirely confined to outer margins and edges.
Early Follower of Luther
Sole Edition of These Sermons
Güttell, Casper (a.k.a., Guthel, Caspar; Guttel, Kaspar; and other variants). Jhesus Quadragesimal oder etliche Faste[nzeit] Predig auss den Episteln un[d] Euangelien nach goetlichem Erkentniss. [Zwickaw: Joerg Gastel dess Hans Schoenspergers Diener von Augspurg], 1523. Small 4to (19.5; 7.75"). [191] ff. (lacks final blank leaf).
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
A collection of Guttell's German-language Lenten sermons, printed in gothic type (of course) and with a main and sectional title-pages bearing woodcut borders — some composite, some single units, each different, all interesting, and all well executed. Guttell started his religious life as an Augustinian preacher but soon followed Luther away from the Pope's church. During the Reformation he was charged with drawing up the ecclesiastical regulations for the county of Mansfeld in Saxony and Luther helped with their final revision.
Guttell was a much published sermonizer and preacher during his life time. This, however, is the sole edtion of these sermons.
Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.
Uncommon: OCLC & RLIN combine to locate only two copies in the U.S., this deaccessioned copy being one of them.
VD16 G3986. 19th-century German black mottled paper over paste boards, abraded, especially along the joint (outside). Ex-library with bookplate but no stamps. Lacks the blank leaf y6 at the end (only); a substantial, interesting compendium with considerable printerly charm. (15039)

Praising the
Winter King
Hermann, Zacharias. Huldigungspredigt Als Der Durchlauchtigste Grossmächtigste Fürst und Herr, Herr Friedrich König zu Böhmen, Pfaltzgraff beym Rhein und Churfürst ... zu Bresslaw/ den 27.Tag Februarii dieses 1620. Jahres die Huldigung empfangen. n der Kirchen zu S. Elisabeth gehalten. Bresslaw: Durch Georgium Bawman, 1620.
$675.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Hermann (1563–1637), “H. Schrifft Doctore, der Kirchen und Schulen in Bresslaw Inspectore,” praises Friedrich V (elector of the Palatinate, Frederick I, King of Bohemia [1619 to 1620]) and — discourses on what makes a king good and great.
Uncommon: VD17 locates only four copies in Europe and OCLC locates no copies.
Modern plain brown calf, old style. Very good copy. (22422)

Das
ABC
Hermanns, Karl. Hand-Fibel oder der Schreib-Lese-Unterricht als erstes Lese-, Sprach- und Lehrbuch für Schule and Haus. Philadelphia: Schäfer & Koradi, 1867. 12mo (19 cm, 7.5"). [2], 80, [2] pp.
$100.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Scarce third edition of this Philadelphia, German-American primer, copyright 1866 and uncommon in all early printings. The alphabet is demonstrated in both black-letter and cursive types, with exercises teaching grammar, vocabulary, and handwriting skills.
Contemporary quarter cloth and marbled paper–covered sides; covers detached, binding rubbed overall. Contemporary newspaper clippings laid in. Light foxing. (24493)
Högström, Pehr. M. Petr. Höchströms Missionarii und Pastoris in Galliwarn Beschreibung von dem unter Schwedischer Crone gehörigen Lappland, in sich fassend einen kurtzen Ünterricht sowohl von des Landes Beschaffenheit überhaupt, als aüch von dem Züstande der Einwöhner, ihrer Haushaltung, Sitten, Manieren, Lebensart, Lastern ünd Aberglaüben .... Stockholm & Leipzig : Beij Johann Friedrich Lochner, 1748. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). Engr. t.-p. (double-page), 328 pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 fold. plt.
$1500.00

One of two 1748 German translations of Beskrifning öfwer
de til Sweriges krona lydande Lapmarker, originally published in Stockholm
in the preceding year. The translation of this important, early account of travel
to the Arctic and life above the Arctic Circle was done by Templin.
Printed in black-letter, the volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding
map of Lapland and a folding plate of Laplanders at work and at play, in addition
to the double-page engraved title.
Scarce:
Searches of OCLC and RLIN show only two U.S. locations.
Provenance:
Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front fly-leaf
with inked ownership inscription dated 1770; title-page with early inscription
of J.H. Gronau.
Not in Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration. Contemporary
half calf over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label
and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; leather worn, paper discolored,
one spine compartment with dark adhesion now chipping. All edges marbled.
First text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Free endpapers excised,
with offsetting from turn-ins to edges of front and back fly-leaves; back
fly-leaf with corners torn away. Engraved title-page, map, and plate browned.
A
Lancaster Imprint NOT!
a Stone upon Stone
[Holford, George Peter]. Die
Zerstörung Jerusalems: Ein unumstösslicher Beweisgrund von der Wahrheit
des Christenthums. Lancaster, PA: Gedruckt bei J. Ehrenfriend für Joseph Scharpless, 1810. 12mo (17.2 cm. 6.75"). 132 pp.
$250.00

Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D.
70 by the Romans, ending a four-year revolt by the Jewish zealots. Many Christians,
even at the time, saw this as a judgment on the Jewish nation for rejecting
Jesus, something apparently supported by Jesus' words as recorded in the Gospels
(cf. Luke 19:4244). George Peter Holford (17681839) first published
this popular work in 1805, entitled in its original English The Destruction
of Jerusalem, taking the prophecy of Jesus and its subsequent fulfillment
as one of the proofs of Christianity.
Translated
from English into German by W. Reichenbach, no doubt for the German Evangelicals
in central Pennsylvania, this is the work's first German-language edition.
Another came out in Philadelphia in 1831, and more appeared in the 20th century.
Shaw & Shoemaker 20358; Arndt, The First
Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America,
1740. Sheep with remnants of gilt on spine. Abraded and stained with two wormholes. Pages with some waterstaining
and scattered age spots, not obscuring text; also some chipping in the margins,
not affecting text.
For
GERMAN AMERICANA,
click here.
Loskiel,
Georg Henrich. Geschichte der Mission der evangelischen Brüder unter
den Indianern in Nordamerika. Barby: Zu finden in den Brüdergemein, &
Leipzig: Paul Gotthelf Kummer, 1789. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). [8] ff., 783, [1] pp.
$1200.00

Important history of the early years of Moravian Church mission
work targeting Native Americans in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and surrounding
regions; Sabin refers to this account as the “best authority, both as
to tradition and facts” on the Moravian efforts in the region from 1735
through 1787. Before recounting the mission's history, the author describes
the customs, languages, and beliefs of various tribes, along with the flora
and fauna prevalent in their territories. A great deal of Loskiel's information
is taken from the accounts of Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg and David
Zeisberger, the latter having served for over 40 years as a missionary in North
America.
This first edition does not include the map found in the later English translation;
the six lines of errata (rather than a full page) at the back mark the present
copy as an example of the first issue.
Howes, U.S.iana, L474; Pilling, Algonquian, 317;
Sabin 42109; Vail 795. Early 19th-century German paper-covered boards, much
worn and abraded, slightly cocked, spine with remnants of paper shelving label.
Some corners dog-eared; scattered small spots of foxing, otherwise internally
clean.
Luther, Martin. Der kleine Catechismus des seligen D. Martin Luthers.... Harrisburg: Gedruckt und zu haben bey Jacob Baab, 1831. 12mo (14.5 cm, 5.625"). 125, [1] pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$150.00
In the period to 1830 Luther's Catechism was the German-language work most printed in America, surpassing even the New Testament in its number of editions. This 1831 edition is printed in fraktur and includes morning and evening prayers and grace at meals as well as an examination for children prior to their confirmation.
Quarter sheep over marbled paper: chipped and rubbed; remnants of a paper title label on spine. Lightly browned with foxing/spotting as in common; dog-eared with some shallowly chipped corners resulting in no loss of text. Inked ownership inscription on recto of front free endpaper and of front fly-leaf.
German
Coleridge
+ English
Goethe
= AngloGerman Romanticism
Nicely
Expressed
Mellish,
Joseph Charles. Gedichte von Joseph Charles Mellish. Hamburg: Bei Perthes & Besser,
1818. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). [6] ff., 182 (i.e., 184) pp.
$1300.00
Joseph Charles Mellish (1768–1823) was British Consul at Hamburg, and an accomplished linguist. This is the sole edition of a collection of his poems in German, English, and Latin. Included are verse translations from English to German, including part of Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, and from German to English, with some verses of Goethe and Schiller. There is also a final poem in Greek and English.

Elegant, lithographed vignettes and devices serve as head- and tailpieces.
This work is rare: No copies were found
via RLIN, OCLC, or NUC Pre-1956.
NSTC 2M23757; Yale University Library, Speck Collectioin of Goethe's Works, 240. Recent quarter nut-brown calf over marbled paper; spine with beaded raised bands, compartment devices, and a red leather gilt title-label. Shallow chipping to some leaves’ edges, traces of soiling and age-toning around same, and a few places with small brown spots. Rubber-stamps from a now defunct library, including on title-page. All edges gilt.
Overall quite handsome.

A PRB&M Partner
Grew Up in Lancaster —
This Is Pretty Exciting to Her!
Mennonite Church (Lancaster Conference). Ein unpartheyisches Gesang-Buch enthaltend Geistreiche Lieder und Psalmen, zum Allgemeinen Gebrauch des Wahren Gottesdienstes. Auf Begehren der Brüderschaft der Menonisten Gemeinen aus vielen Liederbüchern gesammelt. Lancaster [PA]: Johann Albrecht, 1804. 8vo (18.2 cm, 7.2"). [3] ff., 79, [1], 415, [1 (blank), 17, [1 (blank)] pp.
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition of the second official U.S. Mennonite hymnal. Early Mennonite immigrants made use of the Ausbund and the Lobwasser Gesangbuch, both of which appeared in American editions, but they soon decided they needed a songbook of their own. The committee formed to produce it split over how long the book should be, with one faction printing Die Kleine Geistliche Harfe in 1803 and the other the present volume.
This German blackletter hymnal includes unaccompanied melodies in its first portion. The psalter, hymnal, and index are separately paged, the hymnal having a special title-page reading “Ein Neues unpartheyisches Gesangbuch . . .”
Shaw & Shoemaker 6767; Arndt, First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S.,1395. Not in Sabin. Contemporary polished speckled calf with original brass and leather clasps; binding scuffed, spine with traces of shelving label and call number, one clasp lacking tongue portion. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped; front fly-leaf with early inked inscription. Pages age-toned, with moderate waterstaining and spotting. All institutional signs noted, a nice book. (15181)

Lexicographical Landmark Seriously Polyglot!
Minsheu, John. Minshaei emendatio, vel à mendis expurgatio, seu augmentatio sui ductoris in linguas, the guide into tongues. London: John Haviland, 1627. Folio (37.6 cm, 14.9"). [4] pp., 760 columns (numbering very erratic in last few leaves).
$3000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Second revised edition (following the first revised edition of 1625, and the original first edition of 1617) of Minsheu's Guide into the Tongues, an important polyglot lexicon in English and eight other languages (“Low Dutch,” “High Dutch,” French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew ). The work incorporates etymology in all nine languages; it is typographically
quaint, using a variety of fonts including black-letter.
The DNB claims that the 1617 edition of this was “in all probability the first English book printed by subscription, or at all events the first which contains a list of the subscribers.” This revised edition does not include that list, and so, almost certainly was not printed by subscription. Allibone says that this 1627 edition is “Preferred to the other edit., being more correct.”
STC (rev.) 17947; ESTC S121879; Allibone 1325; Vancil 165. On Minsheu, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Period-style morocco framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with original gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments (signed by Grace Bindings in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in). Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped. Some age-toning and light to moderate spotting; one leaf with tear from outer margin into several lines of text, without loss; last leaf with small hole affecting a few words. (21047)
Muhlenberg, Henry Melchior. Erbauliche Lieder-Sammlung zum gottesdienstlichen Gebrauch in den Vereinigten Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinen in Pennsylvanien und den benachbarten Staaten.... Germantaun: Michael Billmeyer, 1803. (17 cm, 6.6"). Frontis., [12], 602, [8 (index)] pp. [bound with] Helmuth, Justus Henry Christian. Kurze Andachten einer Gottsuchenden Seele, auf alle Tage der Woche und andere Umstande eingerichtet. Germantaun: Michael Billmeyer, 1803. 28 pp. [and] Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and the Adjacent States. Anhang zu dem Gesangbuch der Vereinigten Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinen in Nord-America. Germantaun: Michael Billmeyer, 1803. 80 pp.
$375.00
Click the righthand image for an enlargement.
Third edition, following the first of 1786, of this German-American collection of Lutheran hymns, meant for use in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. Printed in black-letter, the volume has a woodcut frontispiece portrait of Martin Luther, done by F. Reiche; it includes only the hymns’ texts, without music. As often, the Hymnal is here accompanied by two other Lutheran devotional works printed by Billmeyer in 1803; the Anhang zu dem Gesangbuch is here in its first edition and the prayerbook Kurze Andachten in its third.
Shaw & Shoemaker 4172; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 572; Arndt, First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 1337. Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 4360; Arndt 1338. Anhang: Shaw & Shoemaker 4171; Arndt 1334. Contemporary sheep, spine with later and sympathetic gilt-stamped title and author labels, binding with brass and leather clasps (intact); leather rubbed and some chipped away with joints open though holding, and spine leather showing some cracking. Front pastedown, free endpaper, and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; back pastedown with later pencilled notation; front free endpaper separated and back free endpaper lacking. Pages age-toned and spotted (as usual in German imprints of this period); some corners dog-eared. One leaf with portion of outer margin torn away, with loss of a few words. Condition actually rather typical, for this sort of volume!
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