Nov 25, 2014 - Sale 2368

Sale 2368 - Lot 118

Price Realized: $ 2,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINT.) A partial copy of America's first herbal, as issued serially in a German-American almanac. 9 volumes in 2. 4to, contemporary stitching; worn at corners, some dampstaining and soiling, 4 of the almanacs complete in 24 leaves each, the others lacking a total of 13 leaves, the herbal sections being apparently complete except for one defective leaf in the 1777 almanac. Germantown, PA: Christoph Saur, [1768-76]
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Pennsylvania's pioneering German-American printer Christoph Saur began publishing a herbal appendix to his annual almanac, Der Hoch-Deutsche Americanische Calender, in 1762. Saur was a druggist as well as a printer, and knew a detailed description of the medicinal qualities of various plants would find an eager audience. The names were given in German, English, and Latin, so his German-speaking readers would know what to ask for if they only had access to an English-speaking apothecary.
Saur published these appendices under the title "Kurzgefasten Krauter-buchs" (Concise Book of Herbs) in the 5th of the 6 gatherings in each almanac, and intended for them to be collected and bound together over the years. The present copy is a bound set of more or less complete almanacs without the herbals separated out. A complete collation is available upon request. See Weaver, "Sauer's Herbal Cures: America's First Book of Botanic Healing, 1762-1778" (New York, 2001) for a recent scholarly edition in English. Drake 9919, 9932, 9945, 9959, 9976, 9990, 10004, 10019, 10037a; Evans 10927, 11292, 11682, 12075, 12417, 12810, 13332, 14119, 14800.