52 - Rutherford, Samuel

Rutherford, Samuel One Hundred Beautiful, Edifying, and Comforting Letters ... Translated into German. Königsberg, self-published by Thomas Herwie (trans.), 12 leaves (title page, colophon), 478 pp., 12°. Contemporary binding on two solid bands with handwritten title and color-edged reverse side (edges slightly bumped, somewhat stained). A rare Königsberg print. - VD17 1:049427X. - Bircher B 16718. - Arnoldt, History of the University of Königsberg, Supplements, XCII (trans.) - First edition of the German translation of the theological epistles by the Scottish Presbyterian Samuel Rutherford (1600–61), originally published posthumously in 1664. - Title page in red and black, with a dedication by the translator, editor, and publisher Thomas Herwie, spanning 22 pages, to Electress Dorothea of Brandenburg (1636–89). Herwie (b. 1621) was a fellow countryman of Rutherford’s, a merchant residing in Königsberg, and head of the local Reformed congregation. - Provenance: Royal Prussian Joachimsthal Gymnasium (dissolved in 1956), with the institution’s round stamp on the verso of the title page. - Rare. According to KVK and VD17, only two complete copies are known to exist in German institutional collections (HAB Wolfenbüttel, SLUB Dresden). - The white endpapers are missing. - Slightly browned throughout; otherwise a well-preserved copy of this rarity. A rare Königsberg German edition of Rutherford’s well-known Presbyterian epistles. Bound in contemporary vellum with a handwritten title on the spine (slightly bumped at the corners, somewhat soiled). - For references, see above. - First German edition of the theological letters by the Scottish Presbyterian Samuel Rutherford (1600–61), first published posthumously in 1664. - Title in red and black, with a 22-page dedication by the translator, editor, and publisher Thomas Herwie to Electress Dorothea of Brandenburg (1636–89). Herwie (b. 1621) was a fellow countryman of Rutherford’s, a merchant residing in Königsberg and head of the local Reformed congregation. - Provenance: Royal Prussian Joachimsthal Grammar School (closed in 1956), with the institution’s round stamp on the reverse of the title page. - Rare. According to the KVK and VD17, only two complete copies are known to exist in German institutional collections (HAB Wolfenbüttel, SLUB Dresden). - The white endpapers are missing. - Slightly browned throughout; otherwise, a well-preserved copy of this rarity.