LUTHERAN DEVOTION, FINELY BOUND
[BINDING.] [HYMNS.] Das Privilegirte Ordentliche und vermehrte Dreßdnische Gesang-Buch, wie solches so wohl In der Curfürstl. Sächs. Schloß-Capelle als in denen andern Kirchen bey der Churfl. Sächsischen Residentz … Dresden and Leipzig: Friedrich Hekeln. 1760.
[bound with:] [PRAYERS.] Tägliche Kirchen-Andachten, welche dem privilegierten ordentlichen und veremehrten Dresdnischen Gesang-Buche … Dresden and Leipzig: Friedrich Hekeln. 1760.
[and:] Martin LUTHER. Der ganze Psalter Königs und Propheten Davids … Chemnitz: Johann Christoph Stökeln. [c. 1760]
[and:] [CATECHISM.] Episteln und Evangelia, wie solche and den Sonn- und Fest-Tagen erkläret werden … Der kleine Catechismus D. Martin Luthers; Das Corpus Doctrinæ, die Haupt-Symbola, Nebst der ungeänderten Augspurgischen Confeßion … Chemnitz: Johann Christoph Stökeln. [c. 1760]
Four works in one volume. Contemporary vellum, covers stained red and richly tooled in gilt, stamped ‘Iesus’ at centre, crowned and encircled by a sun, surmounted by royal crown held by cherubs and monogram ‘A E F’ (initials only to front cover), ‘1763’ and Lamb of God device held by cherubs beneath, all enclosed in ornate roll-tooled border, flat spine roll-tooled in gilt, gilt edges partly gauffered, marbled pastedowns; pp. I: [10], 629, [31], with engraved frontispiece depicting Holy Trinity above skyline of Dresden by Püschel; II: [2], 5-128, with woodcut printer’s device and woodcut frontispiece depicting the crucifixion; III: 92, [4]; IV: 152; all with woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces pieces; text in two columns; extremities slightly worn; some variable light dampstaining, lacking front free endpaper, tiny wormhole to inner edge of ff. N4-Hh8 (occasionally touching a few letters).
A set of Lutheran devotional texts attractively presented in a contemporary, richly gilt-tooled, baroque binding.
When Frederick Augustus I, Prince-Elector of Saxony, converted to Catholicism to become King of Poland in 1697, he did not impose the principle cuius regio, eius religio upon his Protestant subjects. In 1726, he authorised the construction of the Lutheran Fraunkirche in Dresden, now one of the city’s most renowned landmarks. Destroyed during the Second World War, the church’s reconstructed cupola once again dominates Dresden’s skyline, as illustrated in the engraved frontispiece of Das Privilegirte Ordentliche.
Dated ‘1763’, the elaborately gilt binding features the name ‘Jesus’ surrounded by a sun, cherubs, and an image of Christ as the Lamb of God (in German: ‘Lamm Gottes’), to whom the famous Lutheran hymn is dedicated.
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