«Merge Record #»«Title» - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

THOMASIUS, Christian. Summarischer Nachrichten von
auserlesenen, mehrentheils alten, in der Thomasischen Bibliotheque
verhandenen Büchern. Erstes Stück [- 24. Stück]. Halle, Leipzig,
Johann Friderich Zeitler, 1715 - 1718. £ 4500
Twenty-four parts in two volumes, 8vo, engraved frontispiece, pp. 14,
17-1114, [92] index; engraved frontispiece, pp. [ii], 1044, [120] index; title
vignettes and head- and tail-pieces; contemporary blind-stamped full
calf, sides with extensive panelling and decoration; spines in
compartments with raised bands, gilt-lettered spine label; a very fine set.
First edition, very rare, of this literary and bibliographical journal, documenting the
library of the German enlightenment thinker Christian Thomasius. The philosopher
and jurist Thomasius (1655-1728) had accumulated a large library, reflecting his
interests in philosophy and the law. To assure its survival at least in spirit, he
published the present series of publications, documenting rare publications present
in the library. Thomasius was the editor, but most of the book reviews were actually
written by a number of collaborators, among them John. Zacharias Platner and
Christ. Aug. Salig (see Struve II, 857 and Jöcher IV, 54). Thomasius apparently added
comments here or there, but mostly just signed off the reviews. Each issue of his
journal contains detailed reviews of up to four individual works, together with a
listing of approx. 45 further titles. In all the review discusses some 1200 books
contained in the Thomasius' library.
Amongst the titles reviews and discussed in greater detail are works by Bacon,
Bodin, Kircher, Cudworth, Gassendi, Luther, Agricola's proverbs, Budeus' history of
the university of Paris; the life of Hobbes, Hobbes' church history; the library of Fr.
Du Sorel to mention but a few. Also included are critiques of Agrippa, Andreae,
Guthmann, Iamblichus, and Scudery.
Within a decade of his death Thomasius' library was dispersed in an auction sale
(1739). Unlike other private libraries, Thomasius had publicised his holdings through
the publication of this journal. It became a model for other private library catalogues
or periodicals that followed. As Paul Raabe writes in his contribution to the
symposium on Thomasius in Wolfenbüttel, his was the ultimate in
Büchergelehrsamkeit, it documents Thomasius' life and work as jurist, philosopher,
publicist and economist immediately after his death. The two engraved frontispieces
show portraits of Christian Thomasius and Joh. Valentinus Andreae.
Thomasius is of particular importance as a pan-Eurpean thinker, he was the first to
lecture in German instead of Latin university, and added to his reputation as a
controversial figure by publishing a journal on literary and current affairs, entitled
'Entertaining and Serious, Rational and Unsophisticad Ideas of all Kinds of
Agreeable and useful Books and Subjects, for which he encouraged especially
women readers. His works are essential in understanding the beginnings of the
Enlightenment in Germany, where his importance was comparable to that of Locke
in England.
Rolf Lieberwirth, Christian Thomasius sein wissenschaftliches Lebenswerk. Eine
Bibliographie, 269; Kirchner I 40; Jöcher IV 1158-1163; Jantz 2499; not in Faber du
Faur, not in Petzholdt; see Paul Raabe, Christian Thomasius in Wolfenbüttel, in