Friedrich Matthisson - Gedichte - 1787-1787

Matthisson, Friedrich [von]: Poems. With a titled vignette engraved by E. Verhelst. Mannheim, Neue Hof- und akademische Buchhandlung 1787. 180 pages, 2 leaves. Small-8°. Brown half-leather binding of the period with marbled boards, two gold-embossed spine labels, discreet raised bands and red edges. [7362] Goedeke V, p. 428f, 1st edition. - It appeared in Mannheim that there were three printings of the poems, each in Fraktur and Antiqua on Velin paper (each 180 pages) and a cheaper Fraktura edition in which all Durchschüsse had been removed (71 pages; cf. HAB Wolfenbüttel, Lo 5254-5256). The present edition is the handsome Fraktur edition on Velin paper. - The poems by Matthisson published in Zürich by Füssli in 1791 contained only 8 of the 80 poems from the Mannheim edition, “with which he was quite dissatisfied: ‘What would I not do to recover my Mannheim collection’” (see Bürger, Th.: Aufklärung in Zürich: The publishing house Orell, Gessner, Füssli & Comp., p. 80). - “His poems appeared under the laudatory critique of Schiller (...), who praised their gentle melancholy and contemplative fervor, as well as the art for landscape painting and the pleasant sound of the verses” (see Goedeke). Many of Matthisson’s poems and songs were set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. - The very handsome contemporary half-leather binding is now minimally rubbed. The inner hinges faintly glue-marked, only the first and last leaves slightly foxed, one leaf (pp. 145/146) with a small tear. - In overall impression a very beautiful edition of Friedrich von Matthisson’s poems, in this condition very rarely encountered.