Collection of very early editions of three rare comedic works by the prolific Meistersinger, poet, and playwright Hans Sachs (1494-1576). The three poems, which are a combination of a farce and a social satire, reflect the everyday concerns of the German middle class. The present collection comes from the library of Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs (1946-2013), an American (art) historian, who emigrated to the Netherlands, and founded the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum in 1997.
Ad 1 is the second edition of a satirical poem about seven women complaining about their wayward husbands. The piece was originally published as a broadside in 1531 and is the counterpart to another poem by Sachs about seven men complaining about their wives.
Ad 2 is a rare work on the crude and extravagant behaviour of the Landsknechts (German mercenaries). The woodcut vignette on the title page shows the devil hidden behind a stove, eavesdropping on three Landsknechts sitting at a table. The work was first published in 1555. The present edition is the fourth.
Ad 3 is an allegorical poem in verse, presented as a conversation between a peasant and a nightingale. It is based on Heinrich Steinhowel's translation of Aesop's The hawk and the nightingale (1476). Sachs' work was first published in 1555 and is here present in second edition. The woodcut on the title page was used as the lower border of a title page by Eberhard Schon; it shows three putti harvesting fruit amidst rose vines.
With a modern owner's annotation on the first free flyleaf ("Jeremy D. Bangs"). The edges and corners of the boards are lightly scuffed. Some of the leaves are lightly foxed, some of the leaves are partly uncut. Otherwise in very good condition. Ad 1: BM STC German, p. 770; USTC 707043 (6 copies); VD 16 S 643; not in Adams; Goedeke; ad 2: BM STC German, p. 770; USTC 634595 (3 copies); VD16 S 555; not in Adams; Goedeke; ad 3: BM STC German, p. 766; Goedeke II, p. 430, no. 254; USTC 641373 (4 copies); VD16 S225; not in Adams.