Beschreibung:

BRUNSCHWIG, HIERONYMUS. [Kleines Destillierbuch, German ]. Destillierbuch der rechten Kunst, Blumen, Samen, Früchten, unnd Abcontrafaytung, Wie man die Wasser davon Brennen, Distillieren, halten und gebrauchen soll für alle gebrechen des ganzen Menschlichen Cörpers... Jetz undt wider von newem mit viel... Figuren gemehrt. (Frankfurt: Herman Gülfferich), 1552. Folio, 283 x 191 mm., early 17th-century blind-stamped pigskin, sides panelled with roll-tools of classical authors and the Virtues, inner panel with double column of leaf and pineapple roll, upper cover lettered "MASP" above and "1612" below the central panel, rebacked, traces of ties, some mostly marginal worming, a few leaves discolored, occasional minor marginal dampstains . 2 parts in one, title printed in red and black within large fine woodcut border of men engaged in distilling activity under overarching trees with birds, gothic type, woodcut fraktur initials in various sizes, a few small woodcuts of distilling apparatus in part 1 and of animals at end of part 2, over 200 full-page and half-page woodcuts of plants after Hans Weiditz in part 2, full-page woodcut armorial device at end. [ Bound with :] RÖSSLIN, EUCHARIUS. Kreutterbuch von allem Erdtgewächs, Anfenglich von Doctor Cuba zusamen bracht, Jetz widerum new Corrigirt und... gemehrt... Distillierbuch Hieronymus Braunschwig...hiemit füglich ingeleibt. Frankfurt: Christian Egenolph, (1533). Lacks fols. d3-4 (antepenultimate and penultimate leaves of index), lower corner of T2 defective, last leaf repaired . FIRST EDITION, double column, title within border composed of 9 small woodcuts of plants with distillery cuts at bottom, 238 small woodcuts printed from 198 blocks, 132 of plants, mostly reduced copies (some in reverse) of Hans Weiditz's cuts from Johann Schott's editions of Brunfels, one (the asparagus) from Schönsperger's Herbarius , the woodcuts of stills copied from Brunschwig, a few cuts copied from Schott's edition of Tacuinum sanitatis , about 27 of the cuts original, some possibly by Hans Beham. The large plant woodcuts in Gülfferich's folio edition of Brunschwig are extremely skillful copies of Hans Weiditz's cuts for Brunfels, Herbarum vivae eicones (1530-36), and probably belong to the series that Johann Schott commissioned for his own reprints and enlarged editions of Brunfels (cf. Nissen, pp. 42-43). This very rare edition was unknown to Nissen, who describes only Gülfferich's quarto editions (no. 270), with a slightly different title and illustrated with the blocks from Christian Egenolff's pirated series of reduced copies of Weiditz's cuts. The distillery cuts and the charming title border were attributed by Röttinger ( Die Frankfurter Buchholzscnitt ) to the designer "of the Cyriacus Jacobi". Nissen suggests that Gülfferich's editions may have been prepared by Walther Hermann Ryff. Egenolff's small pirated woodcuts first appeared in the companion volume of this copy, the first edition of Rösslin's Kreuterbuch , a compilation of previous herbals, principally the Gart der Gesundheit and Brunschwig's Kleines Destillierbuch . Ostensibly the work of the Frankfurt town physician E. Rösslin, it is the first of a series of vernacular herbals and manuals of household pharmacopoeia plagiarized from various sources and issued by the Frankfurt press of Christian Egenolff. This savvy publisher's main concern was to sell books of proven success to a "mass" audience; he therefore considered the time-honored herbal texts worthy of a special investment: aware of the advances achieved in botanical illustration by his rivals in Strassburg, he simply had his engravers copy the best woodcuts of plants yet produced, namely the beautiful blocks cut by Hans Weiditz for Schott's editions of Brunfels. In 1534 Johann Schott successfully sued Egenolff for confiscation of the blocks and subsequently used them in his own editions of Brunfels. Although Nissen states (p. I:43) that these blocks at some point retu