HochschäTzbarer Seelen Ehren Thron Faber, Fortunatus Bibles,Bookbindings - Contemporary,Etching/Engraving,Illustrated,Religion

Only Edition of a particularly fine South German picture devotional in four parts. The preliminaries include the title, dedication, dedicatee's portrait, a prayer and illustrations of Risen Christ and the Last Supper. Thirty-five numbered double-page openings constitute the next section. The versos show a priest and attendants in song or prayer as they perform the mass. The rectos have a saint on the left and on the right of three prayers. One addresses each saint, and one corresponds to the stage of the mass on the facing verso. The first twenty-five openings present fifty male saints. Twenty female saints illustrate the next ten openings. Portraits of Jesus and Mary begin a collection of various prayers initially flanked by female saints then enclosed by scenes from the Old and New Testament. The final leaves celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman forces at the gates of Vienna in September 1683. Artist, publisher and court engraver to the Prince-Elector of Bavaria, Wening here adapted Mazot's 1651 Tableau de la Croix to local sensibilities, eliminating the Latin text and inserting contemporary events into the frames. An excellent copy, seven-line presentation inscription from Xavier Aloys Embacher to Mariane Wirnhardin penned at the time of the present binding. Praz, Studies in 17th-Century Imagery I: 338 (33 leaves only); Stetter, Michael Wening: Leben und Werk 42-3 & 76; VD17 23:238964Z (4 copies). Gilt red morocco (c. 1780) decorated with a frame of rules, waves, foliage, braziers, olive branches and cenotaphs, initials M.A.W. on the front panel and X.A.E. on the rear, flat spine with waves and rules, green paper endleaves, all edges gilt; in a contemporary mottled calf pull-off case gilt with the same rule, wave and brazier tools; the box lid lined with floral decorated paper, the sleeve covered in green paper