Featured Martin Zeiller's Topographia Archiepiscopatuum Moguntinensis Trevirensis et Coloniensis from 1654

Hello everyone! A new user from Finland here.

A couple of weeks ago, I agreed to try and rescue a whole bunch of old German books from the estate of an old and very cultured Finnish German gentleman. While most of his belongings found new owners rather quickly, apparently nobody had been interested in a bunch of old German language books written in Fraktur, and the deceased man's daughter was willing to give them away just so that she wouldn't have to throw them away before selling the apartment. While I don't speak German as of yet, I do intend to learn the language and am quite interested in German (especially Reformation era) history. Besides, I figured there might be something of monetary value in there as well, so I agreed to go through the library and ended up collecting few boxes worth of books. I also got a few old maps and some framed drawings and wood engravings which I have to look into as well.

While most of the books, booklets and pamphlets I got are from the late 1800s and early 1900s, there was this interesting booklet (pages slightly taller than A4) amongst them, which looked way older than anything else. After a bit of research I figured it is a rebound topographical work by Martin Zeiller (or Zeiler) printed in 1654, originally released in 1646, and part of a bigger 16-volume work called Topographia Germaniae. The title in English is (EDIT: This is actually an appendix to the following title) The Topography of the Archbishoprics of Mainz, Trier and Cologne. It has 41 pages + what appears to be an index. This one doesn't come with any engravings, so perhaps it is a cheaper reprint done a few years after the original?
I'm not an expert on Early Modern German literature (or any literature, to be honest), so please excuse me if the above information is incorrect.







Also inside the book was a couple of old pages, which don't seem to be related to the book itself. I am not quite sure what to make of them. The first one feels rather fragile, and has to be handled very carefully. I think they might be advertisements for some medicinal works? I haven't tried to go through the texts with a translator yet, but they do look rather interesting as well.

Mystery page 1 (rose bush balm?):



Mystery page 2:



Any thoughts and comments on the items, or advice what to do with them would be appreciated.

 

Welcome, JJH. Amazing find!

Understandable, and you were very lucky to be there.

German is also important for understanding the theological aspect of that era. And knowing German will open up a whole new world of philosophic literature, in case you're interested.
Any theologian or Western philosopher benefits from knowing German. Some even say it is imperative. German is much more complex than English, for instance, so it expresses subtleties more precisely, which is what you need for thoughts and beliefs.

Looks like you are correct. Published by Merian, with some engravings by the brothers Merian themselves. Their sister was the famous artist/entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian.

This Dutch wiki page says there were a total of 30 volumes:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Merian

And this English one says 38 volumes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographia_Germaniae

The number isn't that important for you, you only have one, but of an interesting region.

Correct.

Life Essence. A concoction against all sorts of ailments, both physical and psychological. The writer, Johann Franz, was told about this essence by two professors of a Prague medical faculty.

 

Thank you! Looking again at the title page, it looks like that this is actually some kind of an appendix (Anhang?) to the actual work? That would explain the lack of engravings.

EDIT: Looks like this is the exact book:
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/details/bsb10866951
https://books.google.fi/books/about/Anhang_Zu_deß_Martin_Zeillers_Anno_1646.html?id=3eT71i6gWjsC&redir_esc=y

I believe you are absolutely correct about the importance of learning German for someone with my interests. I am especially interested in the Radical Reformation and the various theological issues and debates of the era, and while these days there is plenty of English language academic literature on the various early Anabaptist sects, the German Peasants' War etc., knowing German (and Dutch) would open up a whole new world of research materials on these subjects.

On that note, I could hardly believe my eyes when I started discovering books like Georg Tumbült's Die Wiedertäufer and Julius von Pflugk-Harttung's Im Morgenrot der Reformation among the old man's book collection. Perhaps not rare books in Germany, but to find both in Finland at the same time (and in excellent condition) was quite a surprise, and they are a most welcome addition to my humble library. Perhaps later I will make another topic or two for some of the other interesting things I collected from the estate.

 

How very interesting, I had no idea!
Can you give some examples?
Other than American English, the only other languages I learned are some high school French and some childhood Polish phrases. I've often regretted not learning another language well enough to acquire fluency.

 

I have bi-lingual grandchildren (German) from watching TV & listening to them while they homework I have learned some.

 

Looks like the cultured Finnish German gentleman and you have (had) something in common. Maybe you will find the same common ground among his other books.

I am Dutch, btw, but you may have guessed that already.

 

It is difficult to give examples that give you an idea of the complexity, you would need to know German yourself. But maybe this gives you an idea: German has eight times as many words as the English language.

https://www.actilingua.com/en/al-magazine/5-interesting-facts-about-the-german-language/

That sounds a lot, and it is, but you have to bear in mind that English has the lowest number of words of all Germanic languages. German has the highest number, and Dutch and the Scandi languages rank in between.

When you think about English, you may find that it has many "colourful" expressions. That is because there are fewer exact words, which is compensated by adding more understatements but also exaggerations and comparisons.
I was taught that English is a "poor language", because it has so few words. But in the end you can express yourself in any language. The difference is that English has to do it in a more roundabout way, often using more words, whereas the other Germanic languages, especially German, are more precise, and have more specific words.
If a language has more specific words, it can use fewer words in a sentence. If a language has fewer specific words, it has to use more descriptive words and sentences can be longer.

 

Thanks so much AJ, you've made it make sense!

 

Is it just me or is there some Latin mixed in there as well?

 

Welcome to this forum!

About your German book, printed in Frankfurt by the Merian family. I always try to look up the book in Google books to see if it is complete and it seems complete in your case:

https://books.google.nl/books?id=ts...=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=thumbnail&q&f=false

I can't find any editions for sale, but I see a facsimile edition from 1961, so there must be some (historical) value in them.



Your mystery pages seem some kind of 18th century advertisements of "medicines". A bit of the German version of snake oil in my opinion and quite funny. I can imagine they have some value for a specialized collector.

 

Yes, everything not printed in Fraktur in these documents is Latin. Germans for a long time had this interesting habit of printing German text in Fraktur, and Latin, English, French etc. in Antiqua.

Thank you for the info. The medicine advertisements are a fun and interesting little discovery as well, although it might be difficult to find people in Finland who are interested in such items, but you never know. I'm supposed to visit Münster next year though, so perhaps I could try to contact some antiquarians in that city and see if they have any clients who would be interested.