ROTH, Johann Michaël.
Augsburgische Sammlung derer wegen des höchstbetrübten Untergangs der Stadt Lissabon, ... anbey hat man die Stadt Augsburg in Grundriß mit 48. Prospecten der schönsten Gebäude denselben mit beygefüget ...
Augsburg, Johann Michael Roth, [ca. 1756].
Including:
(2) [MAP - GERMANY - AUGSBURG]. KRAUS, Johann Thomas. Accurata recens delineate ichnographia ... metropolis Augustae Vindelicorum ... = Neu verfertigt accurater Grund Riß der ... Statt Augspurg, ...
Augsburg, Matthäus Seutter, [ca. 1750]. Large engraved map on a folding sheet (50 x 61 cm) at a scale of about 1:4000.
(3) WEYERMANN, Jakob Christoph. Prospectus praecipuorum aedificorum et locorum intra et extra urbem Augustam Vindelicorum ...
Augsburg, Matthäus Seutter, 1742. 4 large uncut folding sheets (each 40 x 70 cm) containing the engraved title-page in an elaborately decorated cartouche and 47 engraved views of buildings in and around Augsburg (each 16 x 13.5 cm), numbered [I], II-XLIII.
1mo (50 x 38.5 cm). With an engraved title-page, the title in the arched doorway of an architectural ruin with a female figure with the Portuguese coat of arms in mourning on the steps, flanked by 2 putti; an engraved report on the earthquake and resulting tsunami on 1 November 1755; and in the first part 60 engraved views, maps and plans printed from 25 copperplates on 13 leaves (4 large folding, including 1 constructed from 2 sheets, the rest on both sides of 9 leaves, except the last, which is blank on the reverse). Gold on black gold brocade paper wrapper, probably from the publisher, sewn without supports at 3 stations, each wrapper made from a whole sheet of the decorated paper, with as centrepiece a statue in a domed gazebo, the dome carried by 4 visible (probably of 6) caryatids. The sheet is further filled with scrollwork decoration with oval portraits in the upper corners, winged angels in the lower corners, 4 more angels plus 2 faces in the scrollwork. Pasted in the centre of the front wrapper is an engraving of the Augsburg pine cone flanked by Neptune with his trident and a river God with an oar, above a city view with cornucopias (10 x 6.5 cm), with a manuscript label below it, "1755 et 1756." The whole is kept is a finely produced modern tanned sheepskin box with the form of a book, the spine with 7 raised bands and a red morocco label, a single brass fastening, and the interior and what would be the edges of the paper lined with marbled paper combining Stormont, zebra and Spanish patterns. [20] engraved ll., some printed on both sides.
€ 47,000
An extremely rare and stunning display of the vibrant graphic and topographic trade in mid-18th-century Augsburg, the main part devoted primarily to the earthquake and tsunami that desolated Lisbon and many other cities in Portugual, southwest Spain and northwest Africa on 1 November 1755. It brings together maps, plans, prospects, bird's-eye views and other views from most of the leading Augsburg print publishers of the day, bringing the destruction into sharp graphic focus, with many views, often including before and after pictures, of Lisbon, Meknes (Mequines) and Fez in Morocco. Several views show looters or others who tried to exploit the chaos hanging at the gallows. The collection goes beyond a mere record of the earthquake and tsunami, however, providing an excellent overview of Portuguese and Spanish topography in general, with many city views, plans and fortification plans.
The title-page notes that the publisher can supply copies already bound ("gebunden zu bekommen"). But it also seems likely that the present copy was supplied by the publisher in its wrapper made of so-called gold brocade paper. Augsburg raised the production of this kind of decorated paper to an art in the mid-18th-century, and the present example (two whole sheets, for the front and back wrapper, printed from the same block) is a fine specimen.
In very good condition, with only the spine of the wrapper somewhat tattered. A beautiful copy and the only complete copy located, of a splendid display of Augsburg prints relating to the great Lisbon earthquake and the city of Augsburg. KVK & WorldCat (2 copies, 1 lacking the Augsburg parts and the other more seriously incomplete).
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