Museum Schoepflini. Tomus Prior [all published]...I. Lapidarium...II. Marmorarium...III. Vasarium. Edited by Jeremias Jacob Oberlin by (SCHOEPFLIN, Johann Daniel)

Two fine engraved headpieces, 17 engraved plates (one folding), three woodcut plates (two folding), & some woodcuts in the text (two full-page). 5 p.l., 50, [2], [51]-90, [2], [91]-184 pp. Small 4to, a handsome northern European "mirror" binding of cont. sheep with a mottled central panel surrounded by lighter frames, sides decorated in blind, gilt fillets round sides, spine finely gilt, contrasting leather lettering piece on spine. Strasbourg: J. Lorenz, 1773 [the parts are dated on the divisional titles: 1770, 1772, & 1773]. First edition of the catalogue of the antiquities and several books and manuscripts given to the Strasbourg museum by Schoepflin (1694-1771), professor of history at the city's university. He is most famous for his Vindiciae Typographicae (1760), in which he published a number of important documents on the earliest period of printing. Schoepflin formed important collections of rare stones and marbles, ancient vases, and books. This is the first volume of Oberlin's catalogue of the collections; no more were published. The final pages of the third part describe a Chinese writing instrument ("pencillos"), a book printed by the Jesuits in China, and a manuscript in Tangutani. Oberlin (1735-1806), was professor of logic at the University of Strasbourg and the author of many scholarly works. Fine and handsome copy. ❧ Bigmore & Wyman, II, pp. 318-23. Murray, Museums, Vol. III, p. 62.