Philologemata abstrusa de pollice: in quibus singularia animadversa vom Diebes-Daume / et manu: item de patibulo, virgula Mercuriali, alruna, esu casei magico &c. Gerrae profanorum refutatae, cum revelata origine vera et admiranda superstitionum; et virga critica castigata habentur aliquot loca ambigua prlmaria celeberrimorum grammaticorum
Leipzig: Typis Johannis Ocelii for Elias Fiebig, 1677. Very Good. Item #47300
Leipzig: Typis Johannis Ocelii for Elias Fiebig, 1677. Quarto (18.5cm); limp vellum with modern title in pen to spine; all textblock edges red; 216pp, with one woodcut illus to title page and another in text. Some rippling and general light to moderate soiling to vellum. Turn-ins sprung on pastedowns. Title page fairly toned, with the text more moderately and uniformly so; ink light on a few pages, but all legible. Binding is sound.
Collection of superstitions and beliefs related to the hand, including that of the Thief’s Thumb — the belief that the thumb of a hanged thief bestows good luck — along with more on chiromancy / palmistry, dowsing rods, vagabonds and vagrants, sundials, and more.
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.
Hayn - Praetorius, 83; Caillet 8951; Faber du Faur 764; Grasse BMP 31
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: $3,500.00