SKU: 88194087137

[FUGGER, Wolfgang.] [Ein nutzlich und wolgegrundt Formular manncherley schöner Schriefften. Als teutscher, lateinischer, griechischer, unnd hebraÿscher Buchstaben …]

Sale price$2250.00 Regular price$2500.00
Save 10%

Pay in installments of $625.00 with ShopPay, AfterPay and Klarna

Shipping Estimate
USA
  • USA
  • CAN

Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Jul 20 - Jul 25

Promo Codes Available:

For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15

Description

[FUGGER, Wolfgang.] [Ein nutzlich und wolgegrundt Formular manncherley schöner Schriefften. Als teutscher, lateinischer, griechischer, unnd hebraÿscher Buchstaben …]How Could Art and Knowledge Exist if There Were No Art of Writing? [FUGGER, Wolfgang.] [Ein nutzlich und wolgegrundt Formular manncherley schner Schriefften. Als teutscher, lateinischer, griechischer, unnd hebrascher Buchstaben ] [Nuremberg: Katharina Dieterichin for Wolffgang Starck. Not before 1576.] Small oblong 4to. Recased in its original eighteenth century binding reusing a ? fourteenth century German manuscript fragment on vellum (see below);

‘How Could Art and Knowledge Exist if There Were No Art of Writing?’

[FUGGER, Wolfgang.] [Ein nutzlich und wolgegrundt Formular manncherley schöner Schriefften. Als teutscher, lateinischer, griechischer, unnd hebraÿscher Buchstaben …] [Nuremberg: Katharina Dieterichin for Wolffgang Starck. Not before 1576.]

Small oblong 4to. Recased in its original eighteenth-century binding reusing a ?fourteenth-century German manuscript fragment on vellum (see below); ff. [97] of [104]; wanting ff. A1 (title), A2–B1 (dedication, note to reader), L2 (italic minuscule) and 2C4 (colophon); rear hinge cracked, final quire loose, quire B reinforced at inner margin; numerous woodcut illustrations and diagrams in the text; light marginal dampstaining at head (heavier to quire B), light spotting and toning; else a good copy; small booklabel removed from front pastedown at an earlier date, eighteenth-century German bibliographical note to front free endpaper.

Rare second edition – the contents unchanged save for the colophon – of the Nuremberg printer Wolfgang Fugger’s (1519-1568) extremely important calligraphic manual (first 1553), printed by Katharina Dieterichin (d. 1605), widow of Dietrich Gerlach.

Fugger’s manual is ‘supreme as an example of engraving. The specimens are cut in relief, apparently on soft metal, with extreme accomplishment, and in this respect it surpassed earlier writing-books in beauty and clearness […] the book was intended, secondarily, as an aid to cutters of printers’ types, and it has a place in the history of typography as the earliest to deal in any way with the design of types' (Carter, preface to 1955 reprint).

In his dedication to Joachim Tetzel, Fugger writes, ‘How could art and knowledge exist if there were no art of writing? […] Any language which is not well written (being ugly or illegible) is a disadvantage; for a clumsy hand appears ugly to all men’ (ibid., trans. Plaat). The present writing manual describes how to properly cut a quill and the appropriate position of the hand and the arm for writing (showing examples of ‘clumsy’ and proper techniques) before detailing a variety of German (Kurrent, Kantzlei, Fraktur), blackletter (Textura and Rotunda, the description of the latter making reference to the Schwabacher and Wittenberger types), Roman (italic, antiqua, Roman capitals), Greek, and Hebrew scripts. A significant portion of the text is dedicated to Hebrew, including passages from the Book of Esther, an explanation of the theory of gematria, and three pages of sheet music; Fugger also makes reference to the work of Hebraist Sebastian Münster.

The eighteenth-century German bibliographical note mentions the earlier calligraphic work of Johann Neudörffer the Elder – Fugger’s teacher (to whom he refers in the present text) and the author of the first notable German calligraphy manual in 1519, who in turn had collaborated with Durer – adding a reference to Doppelmayr’s 1730 Historische Nachricht von den nürnbergischen Mathematicis und Künstlern. Fugger also owes much to Dürer, his geometric Roman capitals in the final portion reminiscent of Dürer’s 1525 Unterweysung der Messung. The second edition reuses the plates of the first and the content of the text is unchanged, the date of 1553 from the first edition appearing as a part-title to both editions. Gerlach (also known as Dieterichin) likely acquired the plates from the heirs of the printer of the 1553 edition, Valentin Gessler (d. 1576). In this edition, however, Gerlach employs a variety of sizes of text and distinctly more elaborate woodcut initials than Gessler, replacing his fleurons with elaborate woodcut tailpieces.

The binding reuses a fragment of German manuscript waste (?first half fourteenth century), comprising c. 11 lines of visible text in three columns, from verses 34 and 35 (front board: ‘qualitate factor[um]. iudex ver[us e]t iustus […] non putam[us] ite[randa]’; rear board: ‘[complec]tatur velut quib[usdam] fid[e]i sue brachiis […] Prophetavit itaq[ue] Simeon’) from St Ambrose of Milan’s commentary on the Gospel of Luke, this portion, on the Nunc Dimittis, cited by Aquinas in his Catena aurea.

Both the first and second editions are rare both institutionally and in commerce. Collectively, OCLC finds ten copies in the US (Columbia, Harvard, Huntington, Illinois, LoC, Morgan, Newberry, SMU, Stanford, Yale) and only two in the UK (BL, NAL).

Becker 56; BM STC German, p. 327 (imperfect); Brunet II, col. 419 (1553 edition but not mentioning printer); Graesse II, p. 645 (‘Nürnb. 1553’); Jessen 2269; VD16 3336/3338. Not in Adams.

SKU: 2124967

Shipping Notes
  • Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
  • Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
  • Delivery to the USA:
  1. Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
  • If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
  • We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
  • Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
  • To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
  • Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
SKU: 88194087137

Discover Niche Categories That Outsell

Top-Converting Item to Boost Your Average Order

4.1 ★★★★★
Based on 6 reviews
Sort
Highest Rating
Newest First
Oldest First
Product Reviews
M
Verified Purchase
Marcelo
Grantham, US
★★★★★ 5
Great product
Great
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2026
S
Verified Purchase
ShN
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Right oil for my bmw
It has worked great for me for the BMW X5. The price is great. I am purchasing these for a few years now I know every Bmw needs to have one Handy in the car just in case the signal comes to add more oil. I am very happy with this product.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2026
F
Verified Purchase
Frogee
Carnegie, US
★★★★★ 5
Great product
Works as stated
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2025
A
Verified Purchase
A
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 5
BMW Branded Oil
The is Genuine BMW branded oil that I use to top off my oil changes for 5 litters. Definitely a little pricy, but it is BMW branded. I'm sure there are products that are comparable at a lower price point.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2025
B
Verified Purchase
BMB
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Real BMW oil
It’s real. It works.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2025

recommand products