Salomon Gessner - Schriften - 1777-1778

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

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 era leather binding with marbled leather, spine with raised bands, richly gilded compartments and leather inlays with gilt titles («GESSNER'S WRITINGS» and «I. UND II. BAND»).

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

Awork of great value and rarity, considered one of the foremost examples of a German-Swiss artist’s book of the eighteenth century. Gessner unites in himself 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; the plates are among the most successful of his graphic production and help define the Rococo-neoclassical aesthetic of European idyl.

A collection of the main works of the “poet of idylls,” especially the Idyls (pastoral pieces in lyrical prose set in an ideal Arcadian-Greek world: An Daphnen, Lycas und Milon, Daphne. Chloe, Damon, Phillis, Palemon, Daphnis, Phillis, Chloe, The Broken Jug, etc.), the pastoral drama Evander und Alcimna, Der erste Schiffer and other pieces.

Compared to the contemporaneous French quarto edition, the Diderot stories 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; there are traces of worming along the extreme inner edge of the leaves at the end of volume. Interior overall fresh, with the characteristic stains and oxidations of the era, but complete with the refined engravings.

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

A typical example of the finest achievements of Zurich printing and publishing in the Enlightenment, today uncommon, complete and in an era binding.