Paine, Thomas. An die Gesetzgeber und an die Direktoren der Republik Frankreich. Ein Plan zur Verbesserung der Lage der gesammten Menschheit.

Neustrelitz, Michaelis, 1798.

8vo. 68 pp.

Bound with (II): Wittover, [Clemens] August. Denkwürdigkeiten der Pfarre Roxel [...]. Münster, Friedrich Regensberg, 1866. VI, 57 pp., final blank page.

(III): Gebauer, Karl Emil. Neuester Wegweiser durch Samland [...]. Königsberg, H. Hartung, 1869. VIII, 97, (2) pp., final blank page.

(IV): (Druffel, F. F. von). Todesursache des Fr. Leop. Grafen zu Stolberg. Münster, Friedrich Theissing, [1819]. XIII, (1) pp., final blank leaf.

(V): Schenk von Nydeck, W. [i. e. Laßberg, Hildegard von]. Lieder der Nacht [...]. Münster, Fr. Regensburg, 1864. VII, (1), 51 pp., final blank page. Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with giltstamped spine-title.

 2.500,00

First German edition, rare. Thomas Paine's socio-political pamphlet "Agrarian Justice", published in 1797, in its first German translation. Discussing land ownership and estate taxation, this pioneering work proposes a detailed plan to tax land owners to pay for the needs of those who have no land. The work is based on the contention that "the earth, in its natural uncultivated state was the common property of the human race" (p. 16).

Bound with four rare works, two of which were prepared by members of the immediate circle of the popular German poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff (1897-1848):

(II) A brief history of the Roxel parish in Münster, prepared by C. A. Wittover (1802-84), a tutor at Hülshoff, mentioning the French count Buisseret de Blavenghem having been secretly buried in the Droste-Hülshoff family tomb (p. 17).

(V) A collection of English poems translated into German by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's niece Hildegard von Laßberg (1836-1909), a daughter of the writer Joseph von Laßberg and Jenny von Droste-Hülshoff.

The remaining two works comprise a guide to the Sambia peninsula northwest of Königsberg (III) and a treatise on the cause of death of the poet Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg (1750-1819) by the physician Druffel (IV).

Paper occasionally foxed. Hinges cracked; calf somewhat rubbed; small portions of marbled cover chipped at extremities. Provenance: Handwritten ownership of Friedrich von Droste-Hülshoff (1837-1919), a nephew of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, to recto of flyleaf; the verso has an index to the sammelband in the same hand. Later in the collection of the photographer and journalist Adolf Risse (1919-79), with his ownership to flyleaf, dated Nienberge, 19 December 1969. As noted on lower flyleaf, he acquired the book from Antiquariat Mehren.

Literatur

Dippel 778. (III): GV LXIV, 70.