Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Fifteen

49 [LAMBERG, Maximilian Joseph von.] Tablettes Fantastiques
ou Bibliotheque tres particuliere pour quelques païs et pour
quelques hommes. Par l’Auteur du Mémorial d’un Mondain.
Dessau, Société typographique, 1782. £2400
4to, pp. [iv], 172, with one folding printed table bound after p. 98;
paper lightly but evenly browned, due to paper quality; contemporary
calf-backed paste-paper boards, spine in compartments with floral designs,
gilt-lettered spine label; a very good copy
First edition, very rare, of a curious work by the Moravian savant Lamberg,
covering music, alchemy, astrology, mathematics, women, the theatre, and
current affairs. Partly designed as a commonplace book, with Lamberg’s
aperçus on a wide variety of subjects, partly fictitious dialogues between
Lamberg (under the pseudonym Sergis) and Sir Earl, apparently count
Saint-Germain, the celebrated adventurer and mystery figure who enthralled
all of Europe with his linguistic, musical, alchemistical and conversational
powers and his discovery of the secret of ever-lasting life, discussing
a wide variety of subjects organised in a curious sequence of journées and
stations, some of them with quasi stage directions.
Amongst Lamberg’s observations there is a brief consideration of grammar,
where he tries to deconstruct grammar in a similar manner to Diderot’s
deconstruction of the senses in his work Lettres sur les Sourds et
Muets. Chapters on ciphers and secret language are followed by those on
superstition, magic, libraries, women, collections etc. The last section is entitled
Question sur une nouvelle manière de comter, ou Bustroph numéral, dedié
aux arithmeticiens modernes, containing an application of the poetic device
of a ‘bustroph’ to mathematical calculations.
Count Lamberg (1729–1792), educated at the universities of Breslau,
Berlin, and Halle, was destined for the diplomatic service. Because of the
intrigues of a courtesan, he became discredited and retreated to Augsburg.
Here he devoted himself to scientific research. He corresponded with
Hume, Voltaire, Algarotti, d’Alembert and Casanova and published on scientific
subjects. He formed one of the most notable ‘cabinets de physique’ in
Germany. He was admitted to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1773.
Caillet III, 6023; Goedeke VII, 9, 10; NBG, XXIX, 119; Querard IV, 481; very
rare OCLC locates three copies in Germany, Duke, and Randolph-Macon College
only.
Fine Association Copy: from Updike’s Library
50 LAMESLE, Claude. Épreuves Générales des Caracteres qui se
trouvent chez Claude Lamesle Fondeur des Caracteres d’Imprimerie.
Paris, Lamesle, 1742. £4,400
Small 4to, ll. 81, title and 80 leaves of type specimens, of which 10
are oblong in size, folded, and mounted on guards; title and music
specimens printed in red and black; printed throughout within double
susanne schulz-falster rare books