Ausführliches Verzeichnis von Raren Büchern mit historischen und kritischen Anmerckungen.
Berlin, Susanne Eleonore Haude (widow of A. Haude) and J.K.P. Spener 1753-1753-1755-1755.
Four volumes in one. 8vo (189 x 118 mm.). [xvi], 622, [2]p. A woodcut Haude and Spener device on all four titles (Unger).
Contemporary speckled calf backed speckled paper boards (rubbed), gilt spine and title labels, red edges, green silk marker.
Only Edition, all published, of this impressive 3000 entry bibliography of “rare books”, which covers Aaron ben Joseph to Bibel. The Bible section is arranged alphabetically by language and describes hundreds of editions. AMONG THESE IS THE SECOND PRINTED DESCRIPTION OF THE GUTENBERG BIBLE, HERE RECOGNIZED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PRINT AS EUROPE’S FIRST TYPOGRAPHIC BOOK (pp. 547-9), following Widekind’s own notice issued in a periodical. His report is based on the two-volume copy on vellum at the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. Other Bibles mentioned include those in Welsh and Wendish, as well as ELIOT’S INDIAN BIBLE (“Virginian”).
Widekind’s work is designed specifically for book collectors and librarians and notes large paper, vellum, dedication and finely bound copies. His surprisingly modern introduction lays out four guidelines by which a book can be considered desirable — edition, condition, publication vagaries (private press, suppressed books, first book printed in a town) and, lastly, books from famous printing houses (Aldus, Dolet, the Estiennes, Giunta, Plantin, Turnèbe, Vascosan…).
Widekind makes extensive use of bibliographies, private library catalogs and institutional catalogs, and he establishes his own six-tiered hierarchy for rarity, each with its own letter-code. The first three levels — not common, rare and very rare reflect how often one encounters the edition, highlighting the dominance of regional marketplaces. The fourth employs a global standard(!). The fifth and sixth are purely numeric — fifty to sixty copies known and no more than ten surviving examples, respectively.
In good condition, complete with the two errata leaves (both singletons), title stamp of Schloss Püchau, bookplate and stamps (and release) of Leipzig State Library.
¶White, Editio princeps: A History of the Gutenberg Bible 86-7; Besterman, World Bibliography of Bibliographies 908; Petzholdt, Bibliotheca bibliographica 113 “A careful…description of mostly truly rare books” (tr.); Krieg, Mehr nicht erschienen: ein Verzeichnis unvollendet gebliebener Druckwerke II: 356.
Price: $2,800.00