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Another marvel of German Baroque art by Johann Ulrich Krauss (Johann Ulrich Krauß) (Augsburg, 1655-1719). 2 fine engraved frontispieces plus 120 engraved numbered plates with inventive and original scenes and allegorical/emblematical cartouches. Click here for a complete online copy from the Getty Museum, and there is a reproduction of the book that can be bought on Amazon. Complete in its engravings but lacking three title pages and the three text leaves (preface which seems to have been omitted in other copies as well) (lacks 6 leaves in all).
The World Catalogue shows 24 copies world-wide.
Title in German: "'Heilige Augen- und Gemüths-Lust : vorstellend alle sonn- fest- und feyrtägliche nicht nur Evangelien, sondern auch Epistelen und Lectionen, jene historisch, diese auch emblemmatisch, und mit curieusen Einfassungen : in vielen Kupffer-Stücken von frembder und gantz neuer Inventionem : so wohl zur Kunst-Ubung [sic] als Unterhaltung Gottseeliger Betrachtungen, wie auch Vermehrung der Kupffer-Bibelen und Ausszierung aller christlichen Postillen dienlich."
Rough Translation: Church Year Daily Readings (meditations including Gospels, Epistles, and Readings), Devotional Calendars, Emblems
Description:
Lacks title page but: Augsburg, Johann Ulrich Kraussen, c1706; Folio (13.5 inches x 8.75 inches x 1 inch); old (original?) 1/4 calf over paper speckled boards with 6 raised bands and two moroco labels with title and artist; gilt design in compartments; edges green
2 engraved Frontispieces and 120 full-page engravings with two engravings on a page. Lacks two title pages, half title, and 3 text leaves (6 leaves in all). All on a heavy, fine, hand-made paper. No text.

Condition:
Lacks 3 titles and 3 text pages. BINDING: hinges weakeniing but holding firm, spines worn and leather worn down and tattered at head, covers scuffed and corner leather worn and bumped down to paper; endpapers browned and stiff and some dealer's writings in pencil -- BINDING: FAIR PLUS
INTERNAL: 
Plates are in strong, fresh, crisp, most near fine impressions; some thumbing, mostly at beginning; foxing scattered throughout, sometimes heavy, affecting images in places but mostly marginal; a few with marginal stains; two with what seems to be lines from a break in the original plates which are also in the Getty Museum copy; 1 leaf with corner missing, 2 with marginal tear, another with tear into bottom of image; PLATES: ONLY GOOD (because of the foxing) -- BOOK OVERALL: GOOD MINUS.
Engravings: Each plate has a New Testament scene and an emblem. The emblematic plates for the Epistles have acentral image with a few smaller ones, with elaborate borders. Titles with Days of the Week with appropriate verse and Captions (mostly of biblical verses) are in German. The impressions are mostly in very good to fine state though there is often foxing in margins sometimes in images. The scenes are often in elaborate architectural settings or embedded in a florid, natural setting (which allows the artist to dwarf the figures and place them in a larger context).
Lehmann-Haupt says of a woodcut (not in our book) by the artist: "If there are any doubts that first-class work was done in the seventeenth-century woodcut medium, examination of Kraus' ... should allay them. The excellence of this print speaks for itself ... it has no rivals in its time and place." (p128, An Introducton to the Woodcut ...). Kraus was, apparently, from a long line of Augsburg painters and engravers. He turned from doing woodcuts to copper engravings when permission was denied him by the authorities to become a free woodcut artist.
References: Landwehr, J. German emblem books, 390, Faber du Faur 1849, Jantz Coll. I, p. 201 (no. 1540)
On the Artist: "Johann Ulrich Kraus (also Krauss, Krauß, 1655–1719) was an early German illustrator, engraver and publisher in Augsburg.
He was a student of Melchior Küsel (1626- ca.1683), who was in turn a student of Matthäus Merian the Elder. Kraus became a partner in the Augsburg publishing company of Melchior Küsel, whose daughter Johanna Sibylla he married in 1685. Kraus became one of the most successful and respected illustraters of his generation in Augsburg. His business was damaged in the War of the Spanish Succession, but Kraus seems to have recovered and in 1717 is recorded in the archives of Augsburg as a wealthy citizen."-- from the Wikipedia article

Scanner issues: The color below of pages and engravings is off. Artistic contrasts and tone and sophistication of shading and detail are all lost in the images below.



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