Beschreibung:

PFINTZING, Melchior (1481-1535). [Theuerdank]. Die geuerlicheiten und einsteils der geschichten des loblichen streytparen und hochberümbten helds und Ritters herr Tewrdannckhs . Nuremberg [printed at Augsburg]: Johann Schönsperger the elder for the emperor Maximilian I, [1517]. Royal 2 o (339 x 225 mm). Collation : a-c 8 d 6 e-h 8 i 6 k-n 8 o 6 p-z A-M 8 . 8 . 6 N 8 O 6 P 8 A 8 (a1r title, a1v blank, a2r dedicatory letter from Pfintzing to Charles V dated 1 March 1517, a3r text of the poem, P4v-P5 blank, P6r conclusion ["Der beschluss diser History"], P8v blank, A 1r second letter to Charles V, A 1v- A 2v key to the characters of the poem, A 2v contents of the 116 chapters, A 8v colophon). 289 leaves (of 290, P5 blank removed). 24 lines. Gothic (fraktur) type, abundantly flourished. Xylographic title. 118 numbered woodcuts by Jost de Negker and Heinrich Kupferworm after Leonhard Beck (77), Hans Burgkmair (13), Hans Schäufelein (20), and others. Printed correction slips on g6v, m1v, r3v (removed), r5v and A 5v, A 6r-v and A 8r. (Most florishes cropped at head, not affecting text or woodcuts, closed marginal tear on title, small hole within woodcut on g2, F4-G2 with minute holes affecting two woodcuts and a few letters, tiny hole on o1 touching one letter, upper foremargin of P5 and three margins of P8 renewed, closed tear on A 2 crossing flourish and one line of text, a few occasional small stains, few small marginal tears.) Contemporary South-German quarter pigskin over wooden boards, blind-decorated with "ragged-staff" tools, two brass clasps (recased, portions of spine renewed); quarter morocco folding case. Provenance : "F.v.Z." (stamp on lower margin of title) -- "Bundesdenkmalamt" (small ink stamp on front pastedown; larger version partially stamped on rear pastedown) -- purchased through John F. Fleming at Christie's, New York, 11 June 1982, lot 420. FIRST EDITION OF THE MOST SPLENDID GERMAN ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. The work celebrates the exploits and heroic feats of the Emperor Maximilian I in overcoming the difficulties he faced on his journey to seek the hand in marriage of Queen Ernreich (Mary of Burgundy) in 1478. Parts of the text were composed by Maximilian himself, who had made the first drafts in 1505-8; his private secretary Melchior Pfintzing oversaw completion of the poem and edited the work. Other contributors were Maximilian's Silberkammerer Sigismund von Dietrichstein and his Geheimsekretär Marx Treitzsauerwein; Johann Stabius and the humanist Conrad Peutinger worked with the printers and artists. The fraktur type used in the Theuerdank was based on letterforms from a manuscript writing book compiled between about 1507 and 1517 by Leonhard Wagner possibly for presentation to Maximilian. Maximilian was instrumental in promoting the type, and helped establish it as the standard letterform used by German printers. Under the direction of the Jost de Negker the series of allegorical woodblocks was prepared by some of the best-known artists of the period. Negker, a Flemish type designer and engraver, was employed by the Ausburg printer Schönsperger who had been awarded the post of Imperial printer for life by Maximilian in 1508. Schönsperger produced a lavish Latin Book of Hours for the emperor in 1513, after which he presumably began work on the Theuerdank . The blocks were reused in the second edition of 1519 and again in 1537 when the work was reprinted by Heinrich Steiner. Other isolated cuts were used in other editions, and as late as 1693 they were used in an edition printed at Ulm. The Theuerdank is considered a privately-printed book, and not intended for sale. Maximilian was able to present only a very few copies in the short period before his death in 1519. The bulk of the edition "lay in six chests in Augsburg until March 1526, when Archduke Ferdinand decided to distribute, through Marx Treitzsauerwein, the contents of five of the chests to different German subjects as memori