[SOLD]

This item has sold. We are always interested in acquiring another copy or any item of comparable quality.

Inquire

With full-page woodcuts by Lucas Cranach

(Rhau, Georg). Hortulus Animae. Lustgarten der Seelen: Mit schönen lieblichen Figuren.

Wittenberg, (Georg Rhau's heirs), 1550.

4to. (248) pp. Title printed in red and black. With woodcut title vignette and 52 woodcuts in the text (13 of which are full-page).

(Bound with) II: Dietrich, Veit. Agend Büchlein für die Pfarrherren auff dem Land. (Nuremberg, Johann vom Berg and Ulrich Neuber), 1553. (246) pp. With woodcut title border. Contemporary roll-tooled pigskin over wooden boards with bevelled edges and two brass clasps.

This devotional book is especially significant due to the outstanding woodcut illustrations by the eminent German artists Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Brosamer, Anton Woensam, and others, including the famous portrait of the Wittenberg printer Georg Rhau at the age of 60. This edition of the "Hortulus" was first printed by Rhau in 1547, and later in a smaller edition in 8vo. This is the larger (4to) edition. It contains a catechism, an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, by Melanchthon, the "Lobgesang" "Ein Kindelein so loebelich / ist uns geboren heute / von einer Jungfraw seuberlich / zu trost uns armen Leuten", with commentary; other pieces for Christmas, and on the Passion. The "Symbolum Apostolorum", the Creed, with the Commentary by Martin Luther, has a separate title-page. One of the most important religious works of the 16th century.

Bound with this is a rare early edition of the famous manual of protestant liturgy by Veit Dietrich (1506-49), a close companion of Luther's, commissioned by the Council of Nuremberg. The work saw more than 15 editions in the 16th century alone, and liturgical practice in Bavaria's Protestant church was based on it until well into the 19th century.

Variously browned and brownstained; insignificant worming. From the library of Werner Habel with his ownership stamp to front pastedown; his acquisition card from 1974 loosely inserted.

References

I: VD 16, R 1691. B. Gotzkowsky, Die Buchholzschnitte Hans Brosamers in den Werken Martin Luthers (Baden-Baden 2009), p. 273-277. Not in Adams or BM-STC German.

II: VD 16, A 644. Cf. BM-STC German 518. Not in Adams.