Oct 13, 2022 - Sale 2617

Sale 2617 - Lot 121

Price Realized: $ 4,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
Russian Printing, Two Early Books in Cyrillic, 1774 & 1775.

Including the following two large quarto volumes:

1) Johann Eberhard Fischer's (1697-1771) Siberian History from the Discovery of Siberia to the Conquest of this Land by Russian Weapons, [title transcribed into English, text entirely in the Russian language and printed in Cyrillic type], St. Petersburg: published by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1774.



Fischer was a German scholar who specialized in the study of the culture and history of Siberia, lacking first ?blank and possibly a map, some water staining; 631 numbered pages; bound in full contemporary leather, worn, 10 x 8 in.

2) Afanasy Filimonovich Shafonsky's (1740-1811) Description of the Pestilence which was in the City of Moscow from 1770 to 1772 [title transcribed into English, text entirely in the Russian language and printed in Cyrillic type], Moscow: at the Imperial University, 1775, illustrated with two folding engraved plates showing the layout of the hospital, bound in full contemporary tree calf, gilt tooled spine with labels, joints cracked, patched with glue, 652 numbered pages, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. (2)

Although his authorship is not credited on the title page, Dr. Afanasy Filimonovich Shafonsky was the senior doctor at Moscow General Hospital when it was hit by an outbreak of the bubonic plague between 1770 and 1772. Recognizing the epidemiological symptoms right away, he was able to minimize its effect on the population and share his knowledge of the disease with his fellow doctors. This first edition is dedicated to Catherine the Great.