Beschreibung:

'ADELPHUS, Joannes' [Johann Adolph MÜLICH] (fl. 1500-1522). Barbarossa. Ein schöne unnd warhaffte Beschreibung des Lebens unnd der geschichten Keyser Friderichs des ersten genant Barbarossa . Strassburg: Bartholomeus Grüninger, 1535. 2° (290 x 193mm). Fraktur type. Woodcut title-vignette, depicting the crowned Kaiser on horseback carrying the imperial orb and a banner bearing his arms, 22 woodcut illustrations [4 printed from 2 smaller blocks], 6 full-page, 2 partially coloured by an early hand, woodcut initials, ornaments and tailpiece. (A little browned, spotted and ink-marked, light dampstaining principally on the margins, some neatly repaired short tears causing marginal losses, affecting text or image on title and B2.) 19th-century half mottled sheep over marbled boards, gilt paper lettering-pieces (extremities a little rubbed and bumped). Provenance : a few early German marginal annotations and flourishes, small sketch in ink extending from one illustration. Third edition of this popular illustrated chronicle of the conquests and reign of Emperor Frederick I (c.1123-1190), illustrated with the same woodcuts as Johann Grüninger's 1520 and 1530 editions. Joannes Adelphus (or Mülich), town physician of Schaffhausen, scholar and historian, states in his dedicatory preface to the Basel chancellor and notary Hans Gerster that he was asked by a friend to compile a German history from the existing Latin sources, and specifically cites the chronicles of Sabellicus, Blondus, Platina, Otto of Freising, and Johann Nauclerus. The woodcuts include a full-page illustration of Venice (I2v), viewed, most unusually, from the north, with the Campanile on the right and San Marco on the left, and two large ships at anchor in the lagoon beyond. The 9 illustrations of military apparatus are adapted from the frequently copied series of woodcuts illustrating Robertus Valturius's De re militari (Verona: 1472, cf. lot 108). Adams A-147; Brunet I, 50; cf. Davies, Murray German 7 (1530 edition); Wellcome I, 35.