Salomon Gessner - Schriften - 1777-1778

Salomon Gessner, Writings. 2 volumes. Zurich, by the author, 1777-1778.

A first and only German edition in quarto format of Salomon Gessner’s Writings (Zurich 1730-1788), published by the author himself.

Two volumes bound together in an early leather-murnished binding with raised bands, richly decorated compartments in gold and leather labels with gilded titles (“GESSNER'S SCHRIFTEN” and “I. UND II. BAND”).

Dimensions 20.4 × 25.4 cm.
Collation: pp. 191, [1] blank, [10] leaves of plates; pp. 194, [10] leaves of plates.
Two etched title pages with vignette and frame, 20 full-page plates and numerous vignettes (headpieces and tailpieces) in aquatint, all designed and engraved by Gessner himself.

Edition of great value and rarity, considered one of the foremost examples of an artist’s book in German-Swiss eighteenth-century printing. Gessner brings together the roles of poet, illustrator, engraver, printer, and publisher, creating a unified and harmonious work in which text and images (idyllic scenes, mythological and pastoral figures of extraordinary elegance and freshness) form an inseparable whole. The edition was limited in print run; the plates are among the most accomplished in his graphic production and help define the Rococo-Neoclassical aesthetic of European idyl.

Collection of the principal works of the “poet of the idylls,” in particular the Idylls (prose-lyric pastorals set in an ideal Arcadian-Greek world: An Daphnen, Lycas und Milon, Daphne. Chloe, Damon, Phillis, Palemon, Daphnis, Phillis, Chloe, Der zerbrochene Krug, etc.), the pastoral drama Evander und Alcimna, Der erste Schiffer and other pieces.

Compared with the contemporaneous French quarto edition, the Diderot tales are omitted and Evander und Alcimna and other texts are included instead.

Binding shows signs of use and wear; restoration at the lower outer corner of the sheet hosting the second title page; marginal traces of saddle-stitching along the inner extreme margin of the end leaves. Interior overall fresh, with the typical stains and oxidations of the period, but complete with the refined engravings.

Sought after by collectors of illustrated eighteenth-century books, of German literature and of Swiss graphic art.

A typical example of the finest realizations of Zurich typography and publishing during the Enlightenment, today uncommon, complete and in an early binding.