Sutter - Sittlicher Gebett-Spiegel - 1742

[BAROQUE DEVOTION – THE LORD'S PRAYER – SWISS PRINTING – EXEMPLA AND MORAL TALES – ENGRAVED FRONTISPIECE]

Rare Swiss imprint from Zug, 1742 – a preacher's handbook on the Our Father, with fine engraved frontispiece after Johannes Brandenberg

"Sittlicher Gebett-Spiegel, In Welchem zusehen, Was zu dem kräfftigen Gebett nohtwendig, und warum dasselbige bisweilen fruchtlos. Mit annehmlichen Concepten, Sprüchen der H. H. Vättern, schönen Historien und Register, in guter Teutscher Sprach gestellt Uber das H. Vatter Unser, Denen Predigeren zu sonderen Diensten, und dem gemeinen Mann zu Gutem und Nutzen."

Franz Sutter (d. before 1742), Licentiate in Sacred Theology, Sextarius of the Chapter of Zug and Bremgarten, parish priest at Walchwil, later chaplain at St Joseph of Muotathal
Zug, in Switzerland, printed and published by Heinrich Anton Schäll, 1742

With engraved frontispiece by C. Störcklin after Johannes Brandenberg, title printed in red and black, woodcut headpieces and large decorative initials throughout.

This handsome Catholic devotional work takes the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer as the framework for a systematic treatment of prayer itself: what makes prayer effective, and why it sometimes remains fruitless. Published posthumously by the Zug printer Heinrich Anton Schäll with the approbation of the papal nuncio to the Swiss Confederation, issued at Lucerne in 1741, and dedicated to Nicolaus, Prince-Abbot of the immediate foundation of Maria Einsiedeln and Visitator of the Benedictine Congregation.

What makes the book genuinely entertaining to read today is its method. Sutter wrote expressly "for preachers in particular service, and for the common man to his good and profit", and he illustrates every point with exempla – short, vivid stories drawn from scripture, the Church Fathers and contemporary report. The chapters range widely across the moral landscape of the Baroque: there are tales of famine and desperation, of avarice, of unchastity and ruinous love, and encounters with the devil himself, who in one episode leaves behind so intolerable a stench of hell that the peasant and his wife fall dangerously ill. Sutter also explains why the Evil One is so hostile to the words "Our Father" – because in calling God Father we confess what the evil spirits never will, and because the word "our" binds us in brotherly love, which the envious devil can neither feel nor bear.

The engraved frontispiece by Caspar Störcklin of Zug, after a design by the Zug painter Johannes Brandenberg (1661–1729), is a fine piece of Swiss Baroque book illustration: the Apostles gathered within a great octagonal mirror, the Holy Spirit descending in rays from God the Father above, and figures of David and Manasses in niches to either side, with scenes of penitent prayer in the cartouches below.

Imprints from Zug are decidedly uncommon on the market: the town was a small centre of Catholic printing in the Swiss Confederation, and its output was modest and largely regional.

Condition: Contemporary calf over boards, the spine with raised bands and a gilt-tooled lettering piece. The leather rubbed and worn with age, with loss and damage at the head of the spine and wear to the corners; the covers scuffed and stained. Internally well preserved on good paper, with browning and occasional spotting, some staining to the margins of the preliminaries.

Pages: 2 p. + 16 p. + 756 p. + 4 p.

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