Monday 24 September 2012

Rare book on display


The rare book on display from our collection is: Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes und beyläufig auch eigener Fremden; nach ihren Eigenschaften beschrieben von Johann Leonhard Frisch, in Kupfer gebracht, und nach ihren natürlichen Farben dargestellt von Ferdinand Helfreich Frisch. Berlin: Friedr. Wilhelm Birnstiel; 1763.

Balfour Library shelf mark: Folio (193).

The book is open at: Plate 1, Buchfink and Distelfink [chaffinch and goldfinch]. These beautifully detailed, hand coloured, copper engraved plates depict birds that are quite familiar to us so it is interesting to see how accurate the illustrations are. Brightly coloured pairs of male and female finches are described as ‘Er’ and ‘Sie’ (he and she). If you look closely you will see the skilled detail in the engravings and the individual brushstrokes that colour them.

This work is the first German bird book with excellent folio colour plates which feature European and exotic birds, including a number of parrots, drawn from the Frisch family collection of preserved specimens. There is clever use of a technique to make certain aspects of a bird “shine”, such as the combs on chickens, and the eyes of all of the birds consistently appear like this.


Johann Leonhard Frisch (1666-1743) was a theologian, naturalist, and philologist specialising in Slavic languages; he taught Leibnitz Russian, and the latter had him elected to the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He is credited with the discovery of Prussian blue, and also introducing sericulture to Germany; he planted mulberry trees around the walls of Berlin from which were produced a hundred pounds of silk.

The plates of Vorstellung der Vögel Deutschlandes und beyläufig auch eigener Fremden were drawn and engraved by the author’s sons Ferdinand Helfreich and Philipp Jakob; Johann. Christoph, the author’s grandson, executed the final 30 plates, and also engraved the portrait-frontispiece after a design by B. Rode. The original drawings are preserved in the Jacob Moyat collection in the Stadtbibliothek in Mainz.

A rare book bibliography (Anker) describes how “the birds are divided into 12 classes and the plates, which contain altogether 307 figures, are accompanied by a brief text divided according to the classes and sections, the subtitles of which open with the words ‘Kurtze Nachricht’ or ‘Fortsetzung einer kurtzen [kurzen] Nachricht’. After the death of J.L. Frisch the publication was continued by his sons, of whom Just Leopold Frisch prepared the text, assisted, chiefly at the end, by Baron Friedrich August von Zorn, who also compiled the comprehensive index”.

Sources:

J. Haffer. The development of ornithology in central Europe. J Ornithol. (2007) 148 (Suppl 1):S125–S153. DOI 10.1007/s10336-007-0160-2

International League of Antiquarian Booksellers http://www.ilab.org/index.php