Specimen Charactervm Latinorvm.
Vienna, [J.T. Edler von Trattner] 1769.
4to (228 x 176 mm.). [i], [25] leaves.
Modern moiré silk over heavy paper boards, edges with 18th-century gilding and gauffering.
Bound with: Trattner, Johann Thomas Edler von. Specimen Charactervm Rvssicorvm, Tvrcicorvm, Græcorvm Et Hebraicorvm. Vienna, [J.T. Edler von Trattner] 1769. 4to. [i], [19] leaves. Abdruck derjenigen Röslein und Zierrathen. Vienna, [J.T. Edler von Trattner] 1769. 4to. [i], [30] leaves. COMPLETE SUITE OF FOUR TYPE SPECIMENS — PRINTED ON THICK PAPER. They present one hundred thirty-seven fonts and over three hundred fifty ornaments, alchemical symbols and astrological signs.
Abdruck derjenigen Deutschen Schriften. Vienna, [J.T. Edler von Trattner] 1769. 4to. [i], [31] leaves.
Bound with: Trattner, Johann Thomas Edler von.
Bound with: Trattner, Johann Thomas Edler von.
All four volumes are printed on rectos only. Pages are framed in fleurons and/or rules, which also separate specimens on the same page. The titles bear Trattner’s etched device of platen and rolling presses, type case and printing tools.
Ad I-IV: In these trade catalogs, every alphabetic specimen is named and numbered, and every row of ornament is numbered.
The first volume has sixty-one roman, italic and decorative fonts along with samples of four series of elaborate woodcut initials. The second volume has forty gothic, five gothic script and five large calligraphic fonts with highly decorative initials (one 92 x 72 mm.). The third volume has exotic fonts — Cyrillic, Turkish, Greek, Hebrew — and two mosaic music fonts (the larger printed in red and black; the smaller in a woodcut frame of musical instruments and part books). The final volume shows ornament of every variety, two-thirds arranged as fountains, firework displays, wall panels, etc.
Orphaned at age two, Trattner moved from Hungary to Vienna and built a commercial empire of letterpress and intaglio printing, engraving, papermaking, bookselling, binding, playing card production, typecutting and typefounding with eighteen offices across the Empire. His business practices — shrewd to say the least — and his close relationship with Empress Maria Theresa secured him multiple monopolies, interest-free government loans and legislation hindering his competitors. In 1764 she raised him to the nobility.
These four luxuriously executed volumes exhibit his success: none is in VD18, Mayer’s Wiens Buchdrucker-Geschichte, Jolles’ Die Deutsche Schriftgiesserei, Frank & Frimmel’s Buchwesen in Wien 1750-1850 or Giese’s “Johann Thomas Edler von Trattner” in Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens 3 (1961) 1336-41. I have located only the Harvard set in the U.S. In excellent condition.
¶Bigmore & Wyman, A Bibliography of Printing III: 21 (vols. II-III only).
Price: $15,000.00