Biblia, Das ist Die gantze Schrifft, Altes und Neues Testaments Teutsch, D. Martin Luthers. […] Mit Churfürstlichem Sächsischen Privilegio.

Nürnberg, Christoph und Paul Endtern, 1662. Large folio. 43 x 27,5 cms. [100] + 1118 + 416 + 16 pp. + 5 engraved titles + 4 double-page engraved maps + 2 double-page plans + 4 engraved plates (3 folding, including a calendar), all engravings in beautiful contemporary colouring. Even if ”incomplete” with only 15 of 43 engravings, this fine copy must nevertheless be assumed to have been very deliberately bound with none of the many portraits and arms, and many of the plates. All titles, maps and plans are present, beautifully painted (as well as woodcut culs-de-lampe), but a fully complete copy numbers another 28 engravings.

Contemporary worn calf, covers with gilt borders, gauffered edges, corner and central brass bosses, clasps preserved but one entirely loose. Late 19th/early 20th century restorations, including old or period-style rebacking with new endpapers, marginal strengthening of some text leaves and plates on verso, in some cases with strips of brown paper, one map with slightly crude repair on verso of a few longer tears, some creasing, finger-staining and occasional slight soiling, final leaf of text worn and partly remagined with brown paper.

Provenance: Inherited in the Wennerberg family to this day, the first owner being Gunnar Wennerberg the elder (1782-1860). He is said to have received the book as a gift from queen Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta in 1815 when he took up the position as vicar in Lidköping, an arrangement which the queen had initiated. The central bosses on covers with signs that a device, initials or similar have been polished off, an understandable or even necessary measure when a royal person deaccessioned a book according to former royal librarian Adam Heymowski (1926-1995), who once examined the book. On the other hand, one would have expected an inscription or similar. - - - “I slutet på 1700-talet öppnades Gustafsbergs badort, och Karl XIII:s hustru Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotta kom hit. Gunnar Wennerberg spelade schack och sjöng så vackert för drottningen, att hon sa: ‘Du ska ha ett regalt (kungligt) pastorat.’ Så blev Gunnar Wennerberg kyrkoherde i Lidköping” (Västgötabygden 1:25, 2025).

VD 17 3:300413Q. Fifth edition of the Ernestinische, Kurfürsten oder Weimarer Bibel originally published in 1641.

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