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Schottel, Justus Georg. Ausfuehrliche Arbeit von der Teutschen Haubtsprache worin enthalten. . Uhrankunft, Uhralterthum, Reinlichkeit, Eigenschaft, Vermoegen . . zumahl die Sprachkunst und Verskunst teutsch und . lateinisch . in fuenf Buecher und teutsch ausgefertiget. Brunswick, Christoff Friederich Zilliger, 1663. 4to. With engraved architectural frontispiece with two richly ornamented pillars supporting a drapery title inscription in Latin & German hoisted up by costumed male figures standing below against a picturesque landscape in the background, printed titles in German & Latin + [14] ff (containig 5 pp of source index) + 1468 pp (misnumbered 1466] + [14] ff including 16 pp of index & [1] errata leaf. Contemporary blind-tooled pigskin, worn; traces of calligraphic title inscription on spine. The most important early work on the German language, the direct precursor of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik', published almost two centuries later. Schottel (1612-76), philologist, grammarian and poet, was an influential member of the 'Palmenorden', one of the leading German baroque literary societies dedicated to the purification of German grammar in accordance with the principles of Martin Opitz. The comprehensive work arranged in five parts treating the etymological origins, grammar, rules for prose and verse composition and a bibliography of notable authors in the German language is considered one of the finest achievements of the literary movement inspired by the restoration of the German language and the revival of German cultural values after the destructive multiple foreign occupation during the Thirty Years' War. The dedication is to the scholarly bibliophile, Duke August of Brunswick (1579-1666), who had first employed the author as a young man as court tutor from 1638. 'Schottel ventured into the field of philology armed with a feeling for the right thing possessed by no one before him, and the book makes him, if not the father, then the grandfather of Germanic philology.The fifth book, 'Von Teutschland und Teutschen Scribenten', offers something like a literary history . In the third treatise of the fifth book he deals with German proverbs and proverbial phrases pp. 1101-47' (Faber du Faur, German Baroque Literature, 697). Goedecke III, 118. The noted British linguist John George Robertson (1867-1933) called it 'The best grammatical work of the 17th century'. A good unsophisticated copy in its original binding; some very light toning throughout owing to paper quality, occasional traces of waterstaining in edges of blank margins, otherwise a clean, attractive copy with a near contemporary ownership signature of a high school teacher at Stuttgart 'Sebast[ian] Kneer, Praec.Gymn.Stutg.' in blank title margin and of W.Baeumlein, an 19th published author on ancient Greek in top corner of front flyleaf. Seller Inventory # ABE-1709912938495
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