Phila.: Benjamin Franklin and Bohm, 1751. xXX111, 1356pp. 64 engraved plates. Complete with the double frontis and subscribers list. Original
This enormous collection of Lutheran devotional writings along with the 64 striking engraved illustrations is among the most elaborate partnership collaborations assembled in colonial America.
The author, Johann Arnat, originally published this work between 1605-1609 and was intended for clergy and household use. Over 150 years and sustaining its mass popularity since the original printing, the text went through five editions, this being the fifth overall but the first American.
Franklin and Bohm collaborated by obtaining the original plates from the first printing, and together through subscribers, produced this momentous work. The extraordinary series of engraved illustrations, including one of a printing press, chiefly depicts Biblical scenes from well-known Lutheran devotionals.
Although Miller records numerous locations, the book is rare on the market, and virtually unobtainable in this condition and completeness. Seldom found with the rare double frontis along with the frontis of each title. One of the finest extant examples of Miller 520.
From Catalog III
Arndt's <em>Wahres Christenthum</em> in a Philadelphia edition of over 1,350 pages with sixty-four engravings — one of the most ambitious German books printed in colonial America, and a reminder that Franklin's press served a bilingual city. Franklin's own view of the Germans was uneasy; his ledgers were not.
Date
Philadelphia: Benjamin Franklin and Johann Böhm, 1751
Author / maker
Arndt, Johann
Condition
1356pp. 64 engraved plates. Complete with the double frontis and subscribers list. Original
18th century calf over wooden boards, retaining the metal clasps and catches. Raised spine bands, simple tooling on spine and boards. Some browning and damp staining throughout, front hinge fortified, corners of boards strengthened with later calf, minor loss lower free end of plate on numbered page 706. One of the finest extant examples of Miller 520.
The engraved plates used for the emblems scattered throughout the text were evidently imported from Germany. They resemble closely the conventional designs which appear in earlier German editions. Edge marks suggest that the emblems were arranged in blocks of fours on the copper plates; they and the accompanying letterpress were separately machined and carry their own set of signatures: A-G, a practice common in the German printing of large illustrated books, but rare in English colonial publishing. (Miller)
Cite this object as“[Franklin, Benjamin] Des Hocherleucheten Theologi.” The Soiferman Collection, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. EIS LIBRIS, https://eislibris.com/objects/franklin-benjamin-des-hocherleucheten-theologi (accessed [date]).
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