De idololatria litteraria liber singularis

by Johann Christoph Koecher

Hanover: Heirs of Nikolaus Förster and Son, 1738

[16], 232, [8] p. | 8vo | )(^8 A-P^8 | 180 x 106 mm

The much expanded second edition (novus potius liber) of this treatise against literary idolatry, which first appeared in 1728 as De Superstitione Erudita. The Cologne Diözesan- und Dombibliothek reports a 1726 edition, but this must be a mistake. Koecher’s preface, dated 12 March 1738, opens with a reference to his De Superstitione Erudita (1728), which he mentions writing ten years prior (conscripsi edidique ante hos decem annos). Koecher seems particularly taken with his newly adopted turn of phrase, idololatria litteraria, which he credits to Anna Maria van Schurman (p. 3). ¶ To this edition, the author has added “many documented examples of this vice, which I describe and vituperate” (leaf )(5r). “We must surely consider those who, in veneration of the most learned men, a bit more hastily cross the boundary and limit; and we shall describe the vice, which we labor at, more copiously” (p. 3). The author indeed cites examples with abandon, tapping literary luminaries like Erasmus, Paracelsus, Justus Lipsius, Hugo Grotius, and dozens more. ¶ A curious take-down of some of Europe’s most accomplished writers.

PROVENANCE: Contemporary ownership inscription on title, now rather faint. Illustrated heraldic etched bookplate of front paste-down of Montpellier writer Marie Barthélémy Achille Kühnholtz-Lordat (1820-1893). Old, perhaps 19th-century, blue shelf-mark label above the bookplate.

CONDITION: Contemporary parchment over boards, the spine with a leather label and simple gilt ruling; edges sprinkled red. Title vignette; head- and tail-piece. ¶ The preliminary gathering extremely darkened and with much spotted staining, the latter also through the margins of sheet A; mild foxing. Parchment moderately soiled.

Item #315