Ludicrum chiromanticum: Seu Thesaurus Chiromantiae Locupletissimus: multis Jocis & amoenitatibus, pluribus tamen seriis instructissimus: Ex omnibus, qui prostant, & de chiromantia seu pro, seu contra; vel multum, vel parum literarum monumentis consignarunt, Scriptoribus refertissimus: plurimis perspicuis Iconibus, evidentibus experimentis, & singulari Mnemonica Methodo elaboratissimus: in quo utilitas cum jucunditate pari passu ambulant; uti praefatum ulterius declarabit
Jenae [Jena] & Arnstadii [Arnstadt], Leipzig: Litteris Caspari Freyschmidii [Caspar Freyschmidt] for Johannis Bartholom. Oehleri, Bipl. 1661. Very Good. Item #47298
Jenae [Jena] & Arnstadii [Arnstadt], Leipzig: Litteris Caspari Freyschmidii [Caspar Freyschmidt] for Johannis Bartholom. Oehleri, Bipl., 1661. Quarto (20.5cm); contemporary parchment; [x],1-190,215-1010,10011-10026 [i.e. 1011-1026],301-340,[14],14,[48]pp. (collated, erratically paginated but complete); engraved title page by Paravincius, one foldout of “De notis in manu” (“the notes of the hand”); woodcut palmistry and metoposcopy figures throughout. Manuscript title fading at head of spine with some label residue beneath; chipping with exposure along fore-edge of front board; brief split to vellum at front joint between third and fourth threads; general smudging to surface. Board visible through top corner of front pastedown from likely bookplate removal. Pages toned with mild to moderate foxing and offsetting; a few brief marginal chips not touching text; manuscript pen notes in Latin on rear flyleaf verso.
A sweeping compendium of works on chiromancy (palmistry) and metoposcopy (forehead-wrinklery), Ludicrum chiromanticum (The Palmistry Entertainment) collects Praetorius’ own scholarship on the subject with other major works by Robert Fludd, Balthasar Summer & Samuel Kelner, Caspar Schott, and Nicolaus Pompeius, complete with numerous diagrams and a fantastic engraved title page by Johann-Baptist Paravicini.
Praetorius — Hans Shultze to his friends — was an occasional lecturer and full-time scholar, known as a great compiler of folklore, legend, and superstition. The Brothers Grimm praised his “perspicacious erudition” and called him their “most significant written source,” and his Blockes-Berges Verrichtung (1668) on the witches’ sabbath at Mount Brocken informed the Walpurgisnacht scenes in Goethe’s Faust. Praetorius died during a plague outbreak in Leipzig in 1680.
Thirty-ish copies found in OCLC but only a hand's-worth in North America.
Fitzherbert 487; Dünnhaupt 8.1; Sabattini 443; Caillet 8950
See also:
"Johannes Praetorius and his Magical World." The Thinker's Garden. Online [July 23, 2020]
Gerhild Scholz Williams. Ways of Knowing in Early Modern Germany: Johannes Praetorius as a Witness to his Time. [Ashgate, 2006].
Price: $2,500.00