Michael Baurenfeind Sold at Auction Prices

BAURENFEIND, Michael (1680-1753). Vollkommene Wider-Herstellung, der Bissher sehr in Verfall Gekommen Gründlich und Zierlichen Schreibkunty . Nuremberg: Christoph Weigel, [1716].

BAURENFEIND, Michael (1680-1753). Vollkommene Wider-Herstellung, der Bissher sehr in Verfall Gekommen Gründlich und Zierlichen Schreibkunty. Nuremberg: Christoph Weigel, [1716]. Oblong 2o (222 x 342 mm). Engraved title, 44 pages letterpress text. Six engravings in text and letterpress table inserted at page 30. 59 engraved plates, arranged in three suites: 24 plates lettered A-Z; 14 plates numbered 1-14; and 21 plates lettered A-X. (Plate I in the third suite slightly shorter and on a tab, some browning to the text that is printed on a different stock, some occasional staining.) Contemporary German half vellum (front hinge cracked, some rubbing); quarter morocco box. Provenance: F. Conrad Erker (signature on pastedown); acquired from E. P. Goldschmidt, 1983. FIRST EDITION of Baurenfeind's manual of the main Latin, German, French, Italian and Dutch cursives, and of Greek, Hebrew and some exotic alphabets. It is dedicated to the citizens of Nuremberg, 14 December 1716, by the author, a fellow citizen and imperial notary. Each of the fifty-nine specimens is discussed in the prefatory text, where the author also gives instructions on the correct position of the hand, the proportions of majuscules and miniscules, height of the script, etc., with several text illustrations. A folding table compares Syria, Chaldaic, Arabic, Aethiopic, and three other alphabets. There were apparently three contemporaneous issues, without priority, differentiated by the tail-piece on page 39. In this copy the tail-piece measures 39 x 76 mm and features a flaming urn. A second volume of Baurenfeind's specimens was published twenty years later. Berlin Kat. 4871; Bonacini 157; Doede, Schreibmeisterbücher 126.