Beschreibung:

HALLER, Baron Gottlieb Emanuel von (1735-1786). Bibliothek der Schweizer-Geschichte. Bern: Hallersche Buchhandlung, Rudolph Albrecht Haller, 1785-1788. 7 volumes, 8 o (218 x 138 mm). Engraved title vignette by Duncker, 12 plates, list of plates of the work printed on blue paper and pasted inside lower cover. Contemporary (Swiss?) half-calf, ochre and green morocco labels on spines, all edges uncut (volume I worn, some rubbing to others). With its 11,093 entries this monumental bibliography has remained to the present day the most complete account of the literature on Swiss history and Switzerland in general up to 1785. Haller, the eldest son of the celebrated Albrecht von Haller, played an important role in the administration of the canton of Bern, but his historical significance resides in his work as bibliographer which became the "Grundlage der sich zur eigentlichen Wissenschaft aufwachsenden schweiz. Geschichtsforschung und bildete einen wesentlichen Beitrag zu dem eben neu erwachten eidgenössischen Nationalgefühl." (H. Haeberli in NDB). The detailed evaluation of almost every work listed by him shows that he must have perused each of them - a labor of colossal dimension. He died after seeing vol. II through the press, but as he left the complete MS of the subsequent volumes, their anonymous editor's task was a comparatively simple one, though he contributed to Haller's biography and bibliography. Apart from his Specimen Bibliothecae Historicae Helveticae of 1757, containing the germ of his great work, the above is its second edition, preceded by the "Erster bis sechster Versuch eines critischen Verzeichnisses aller Schriften, welche die Schweiz betreffen," Bern: 1759-1770. The printer, R.A. Haller was presumably the son of Albrecht von Haller's brother Nicklaus Emanuel, printer and publisher in Bern. The seven volumes are handsomely printed; the edition seems to have been very small - there were only 345 subscribers; most copies lack the twelve plates. (7)