Regenspurg, Gedruckt… 1698.
4to [196 x 155 mm], 1 frontispiece, (8) ll., 684 pages misnumbered 676; 212 copper engravings. Full light-brown calf, spine ribbed and richly decorated, red edges. Contemporary binding.
Very sought-after first edition of this famous illustrated work by the German engraver and editor Christoph Weigel (1654-1725) about crafts in the seventeenth century. illustrated with 212 copper engravings and a frontispiece.
Bauer, Weigel 1062, 10; Lipperheide Pe.; Brunet Suppl. II. 941 ; VD17 1:081343C; BL/STC German Books W-688.
It is a first-rate source on the main trades and crafts at the end of the 17th century.
According to Brunet, there is a state before the numbers, which is the case in this copy.
“First edition of Weigel’s popular account of trades and crafts, a book famed for its detailed descriptions of contemporary professions and guilds. Some, like fishermen and ship’s captains, were rather unusual in Nuremberg or southern Germany”.
« Geschätzt wegen dekorativer, genauer Darstellungen zeitgenössischer Stände und Handwerke mit entspr. Beschreibungen, die ‘einen wichtigen Einblick in Handwerk, Künste und Handel zur Zeit Weigels’ (B. 836) geben. 87 Darstellungen sin dim süddeutschen Raum fremd (z. B. Fischer, Schiffer, Muschel-Verkäufer) und basieren auf J.u.C. Luykens ‘Het Menselyk Bedryf’ von 1694 (s. B. 839 u. 1143 ff. mit genauer Auflistung)”.
The work is divided into twenty-four parts or divisions, each relating to a category of trades. Beginning with six professions or functions of state (regent, lawyer, civil servant, etc.), there follows the trades of arms (soldiers, cannon founder, powder-maker, etc.), the navy (sailor, mast-maker, anchor forger, etc.), education, medicine, commerce, “glorious exercises” (master of arms, master of ceremonies, etc.), and so on. ), education, medicine, commerce, “glorious exercises” (master-at-arms, dancing master, ball master, etc.), arts, music, printing, jewelry and goldsmithing, brasswork, carpentry, etc.
An important feature of this book is its rich illustration, where each trade described includes an engraving depicting it, featuring one or more practitioners.
All the crafts of the Classical Ages are here represented with fine half-page copper engravings. Some engravings bear Caspar Luyken‘s signature, others are unsigned.
This edition is very rare.
Most copies are incomplete, such as the ones preserved at the B.n.F. or in the Lipperheide collection.
A very fresh copy complete with the 212 engravings in the first state before the numbers, preserved in its elegant decorated contemporary binding.
