About this Item
First edition, scarce. Gebhard Wendeborn (1742 1811), Minister for the German chapel on Ludgate Hill, was the first to treat German explicitly as a language of literature and culture … [He] seems to have believed that over-long grammars had contributed to putting learners off German … so kept his grammar comparatively short … In keeping with the growing interest in German culture, Wendeborn … reproduced two chapters of Tacitus s Germania in German and literal English translation … followed by A Specimen of German Print. From Gellert s Lectures on Morality … Wendeborn s grammar was reviewed in 1775 in the Critical Review: As German literature is at present of much greater consequence than is commonly apprehended, we join with the author in wishing, that it were more attended to, and that this Grammar may be an inducement and a help to the study of it, for at present we know scarce anything of it, excepting through the medium of French translation. Of particular interest in this climate of hunger for German literature is Wendeborn s Catalogue of Some of the best German modern writers [pp. [153] 156] (Nicola McLelland, German through English Eyes, 2015, pp. 57 8), which features Gessner, Klopstock, Lessing, Moses Mendelssohn, Wieland, etc. Alston XIII, 13; Jefcoate 1774.3; McLelland, A chronological bibliography of German textbooks for English speakers, 1600 2000 , p. 345. ESTC locates only 2 copies outside Europe, at Duke and Miami. 12mo (173 × 102 mm) in half-sheets, pp. xii, 156; a very good copy in contemporary polished tree calf, corners worn; modern owner s inkstamp to front free endpaper. Seller Inventory # ABE-1594980928425
Contact seller
Report this item
