Theoretische und practische Anleitung zur Kalligraphie

1805 · Ansbach

by NODERER, G. M.

Ansbach: bey G. M. Rappold, Buchbinder, 1805. Oblong 4to (172 x 200 mm). Engraved title, [4] pages letterpress text, 12 numbered engraved calligraphy samples within double-rule borders, title and plates engraved by G. [George Friedrich] Vogel, all on blueish paper. (4 plate borders shaved at fore-edge, scattered light foxing.) Presentation half leaf bound in before title, neatly inscribed in manuscript “Preisschrift für Johann Georg Oberhauser. Ansbach den 12. Oct. 1809. Koeniglich Baierisches Studienrectorat. Schaefer. Goess. Stieber.” Publisher’s prize binding of blue paper boards, covers with silver-tooled interlace border and and central wreaths enclosing (truncated) the words Dem jugendlichen Verdienste (”for youthful merit”) on front cover and Schuljahr 1809 (”schoolyear 1809”) on back cover (extremities rubbed, small scrapes to front cover). Provenance: Johann Georg Oberhauser (1798-1868), optician.***

Only edition of a charming prize book for a young student, containing a local schoolmaster’s concise calligraphic guide to the most common German and Latin scripts. Printed and bound locally, the book may have been kept in stock by the publisher-binder Rappold for the Ansbach school, for distribution as prizes, with new bindings each year. In 1809 this copy was awarded to eleven-year-old Ansbach pupil and future microscope-maker Johann Georg Oberhauser (see below) by a triumvirate of school administrators (Schaefer, Goess, and Stieber, members of the Royal Bavarian Office of Academic Affairs).

From the 18th to 20th century, a literate person in Germany was expected to know how to write in three different scripts, a special cursive for writing letters, etc., in everyday German, a more formal German hand for titles and documents, and an italic cursive for other languages like Latin, French and English. Children had to learn all three; they were also familiarized with the formal Fraktur, used for official documents, calligraphic showpieces, etc. Thus the first 7 and 1/2 plates of this useful little book are devoted to the German cursive and chancery hands, Kurrent (spelled here Current) and Kanzlei Schrifts; and plates 8-11 contain examples of the “Latin” script, with samples in Latin, French and English, while the last plate contains a Fraktur alphabet. The alphabet plates for the Current and Kanzlei hands show the basic strokes and variant forms, followed by lower- and upper-case alphabets. As he explains in the introduction, Noderer, who calls himself in the title a “writing and arithmetic-master,” decided to use texts on calligraphy for the samples themselves. Topics are terminology, ascenders and descenders, parallel, diagonal and perpendicular lines, hairline strokes, proper form, etc. He would have wished to provide more theoretical information in the introduction, but was prevented by the need to keep the work compact and cheap.

Noderer also published an arithmetic textbook, in 1798 (one US copy, at Princeton). The engraver Vogel, who identifies himself as being from Wöhrd near Nuremberg, was the third generation of the Vogel family of Nürnberg engravers; he specialized in small formats (Thieme-Becker 34:48).

The recipient of this copy was almost certainly the important optician Johann Georg Oberhauser. Son of an Ansbach master turner, he apprenticed with an instrument-maker in Würzburg after completing the gymnasium in Ansbach, and later emigrated to Paris, where he became a highly successful microscope-producer, catering to a growing market of students in biology and botany who required good but affordable microscopes.

I locate no copies outside Europe (OCLC gives Berlin, Munich and Strasbourg). This is a much lovelier copy than the badly foxed digitized Bavarian State Library copy.

Berlin Katalog 4958; Bonacini 1294. On Oberhauser, see Wikipedia (good article in English), and M. Seeberger, "Oberhaeuser, Georg" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 19 (1999), 385-386 (online). (Inventory #: 4417)

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Theoretische und practische Anleitung zur Kalligraphie

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1805 · Ansbach

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