Hebrew Printing in Sabbioneta 1 AFFO, Ireneo - Schulz-Falster Rare ...

First edition, uncommon, of this unusual Dance of Death, illustrated with
superbly executed etchings of death striking in everyday situations, including
some documenting current events, such as the burning of MontgolWer’s
balloon, or the invention of gunpowder. Schellenberg is the Wrst to virtually
abandon the example of Holbein, and break with the medieval and Renaissance
traditions of the depiction of death. Instead he shows contemporary
man faced with death, and comments on the social and political realities of
the time. Together with the satirical text of Johann Karl August Musäus
(1735–1787), this clearly mirrors contemporary attitude to death. As a
res ult of enlightenment debates on death and dying, initiated by Lessing,
Schellenberg depicts death as ‘Freund Hein’, based on a character in Matthias
Claudius’ Wandsbecker Bote. He shows death as a skeleton, lurking in
everyday situations, such as the disappointed lover, the usurer, the glutton,
the negligent mother, but also includes unusual scenes, such as a tightrope
walker falling, the lottery gambler losing, and a bookseller being buried
under his books. The illustrations are etched in a simple rococo style.
Schellenberg (1740–1806), a skilled Swiss artist and engraver supplied
some of the plates for Lavater as well as executing many of Chodowiecki’s
designs.
Goedeke IV/1; Graesse VI, 298; Lanckoronska-Oehler II, 175V. (Schellenbergs
Meisterleistung); Massmann S. 59, A–1; Oppermann 1200 (plate series without
text); Rümann 788.
107 SCHULTZE, Benjamin. Orientalisch- und Occidentalisches
A, B, C – Buch welches hundert Alphabete nebst ihrer Aussprache
so bei denen meisten Europäisch-Asiatisch-Africanisch- und
Americanischen Völckern und Nationen gebräuchlich sind, nebst
einigen Tabulis Polyglottis, verschiedener Sprachen und Zahlen vor
Augen leget. Naumburg and Zeitz, Christian Friedrich Gessner,
1769. £950
8vo, pp. [xii], 219, [5], with 12 engraved plates and one folding printed
table; with numerous alphabet specimens in the text; lightly browned
throughout, due to paper stock; a few sample leaves cut close at foot;
contemporary paste-paper covered boards, a little rubbed.
First edition thus, of this important work of eighteenth century linguistic
studies, illustrating the alphabets and pronunciation of one hundred European,
Asian, African and American languages, clearly aimed at the missionary
market. Of particular visual appeal are the numerous tables showing
exotic alphabets and numbers. Schultze includes such languages as Ethiopian,
Malagassy, Singalese, Marath, Mexican, Savannah, Virginia, Japanese,
Chinese, etc. In the brief section on American languages Schultze deplores
the lack of information on them, cites some of the early reports and gives
some details of Algonquin, Huron, Massachusetts (with a mention of Johan
Elliot’s Bible translation of 1666), and Makentowonits languages amongst
catalogue fourteen