Psalterium Davidis carmine redditum per Eobanum Hessum. Cui accessit Ecclesiastes Solomonis, eodem genere carminis redditus.Leipzig, (Michael Lantzenberger), 1591

BOUND IN THE STYLE OF CASPAR MEUSER

8vo (170 x 105mm). [14]ff. 436pp. [4]ff. Contemporary German calf over pasteboards, covers tooled in gilt (now mostly oxidised), outer ornamental border, large decorative inner corner stamps, central lozenge with arms of Saxony (upper cover) and Brandenburg (lower cover), upper cover with initials 'ACVE' and date '1598', spine with raised bands and fleuron tool in each compartment, edges gauffered in a repeated swirling pattern in gilt and red (ties missing; a little worn at corners and head of spine, joints just cracked in places but sound).

 

A fine late 16th century German binding. Some of the stamps are closely related to those of Caspar Meuser, who was employed by Jakob Krause and appointed second court binder in 1578, after which he established his own shop in Dresden. After Meuser’s death in 1593, his tools passed into the possession of his journeymen and the Saxon court bookbindery, who continued to use them. Our binding is likely to have come from one of these workshops.

A late 16th century binding in the British Library has the same ownership stamps ‘ACVE’ (BL C65d11) on the lower cover and is likely to be Polish in origin (see: https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/bookbindings/LargeImage.aspx?RecordId=020-000004442&ImageId=ImageId=41826&Copyright=BL ).   

 

Eoban of Hesse’s translation of the Psalter into elegiac verses, much celebrated at the time, was first published in Marburg in 1537 (cf. Krause II, 204f). Eoban (1488-1540) was a neo-Latin poet and Lutheran humanist (see: Harry Vredeveld “Hessus, Eobanus” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand 1996). 

 

Provenance: Unidentified intials 'ACVE' and date '1598' on front cover. Stamp on verso of title of the 'Gymnasium Luccaviense' (i.e. Luckau, Brandenburg, Germany).

 

Early 20th century bookplate 'Ex libris D.M.Z.' with pencil note beneath 'Dr. Max Zenger'; possibly the German composer Max Zenger (1837-1911), who was professor at the Königlich Bayerischen Musikschule, Munich.

 

VD16: ZV 23591. Not in Adams or BMSTC (German). For more on Casper Meuser, see Mirjam M. Foot, The Henry Davis Gift, vol I, no. 22.

 

Stock Code: 243504