Amoenitates Altdorfinæ oder Eigentliche nach dem Leben gezeichnete Prospecten der Löblichen Nürnbergischen Universität Altdorf
Nürnberg, W. Michahelles for the author c. 1720.
Oblong folio (342 x 428 mm.). [ii], 4p. and NINETEEN ETCHED AND ENGRAVED PLATES OF ALTDORF’S PRINCIPAL SITES, text double-column, title in red and black.
Somewhat later beige paper over stiff boards (soiled, rubbed, short crack at the top of the front hinge, edges slightly defective), octagonal manuscript-lettered title label on the front cover.
Only Edition, first issue, of these lively views of the renowned Bavarian university town of Altdorf on the cusp of the Enlightenment. Founded in 1526 as a high school, raised to an academy in 1578 and a university in 1622, Altdorf was “one of the first, if not the first, university in Germany dedicated to the serious study of the experimental sciences” (Irsay, tr.). The school’s graduates include imperial field marshals Wallenstein and Pappenheim, composers Briegel and Pachelbel and the polymath Leibniz. The album has been variously dated from 1681 to about 1720.
Johann Martin Trechsel (1661-1735) wrote the introductory text. He describes sketching the town and its environs over a four-year period and shares characteristic aspects of his subject before expatiating upon each plate’s contents — identifying owners of specific houses and gardens, explaining local civil and academic customs, enumerating the university’s buildings, dating the addition of specific features, recording inscriptions, highlighting architectural features and discussing important patrons and professors.
The suite begins with the town’s skyline and outer walls as seen from the northwest (the road from Nürnberg), then the market square, the orphanage, chancery, Church of St. John (inside and out) and town hall (during a festival). The university is the subject of the rest of the etchings, starting with the general assembly hall. THE ANATOMICAL THEATER HAS WALL-MOUNTED HUMAN VENATION DIAGRAMS. ANIMAL SKELETONS FILL THE MEZZANINE. THE FULLY FURNISHED CHEMICAL LABORATORY (est. 1683) follows. Both rooms are fully treated in the text.
Three plates show THE LIBRARY AND ITS COLLECTION OF NATURAL CURIOSITIES, the physic garden and green houses of exotic and medicinal plants and the theology lecture hall. The final three etchings depict student life — their recreation facilities (wash basins, desks and study carrels), the dining hall (servers carrying food, students raising toasts…) and the private fencing academy.
I have located two examples in the U.S., both defective. In good condition (the final letterpress leaf with a minor lower blank marginal stain), bookplate of Christian Gottlieb Müller (1741-1823), Secretary of the storied Nürnberg literary society Pegnesischer Blumenorden and author of the Verzeichnis von nürnbergischen topographisch-historischen Kupferstichen (1791-1821; see below), pencil signature of Dr. A. ?Enorbi Landgerichts Rath.
¶Irsay, Histoire des universités II: 110; Müller, Verzeichnis von nürnbergischen…Kupferstichen I: 54-5; Günther, “Die mathematischen- und Naturwissenschaften an der nürnburgischen Universität Altdorf” in Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg Hft. III (1881) 9-12; Werner & Schmidt-Herrling, Die Bibliotheken der Universität Altdorf 48-9 & frontispiece of the library reproducing plate 16; Erman & Horn, Bibliographie der deutschen Universitäten II: 29a; VD18 14688239.
Price: $16,500.00