ABRAHAM A SANTA CLARA. [Megerle, Ulrich.] Etwas für alle, Das ist eine kurtze Beschreibung allerley Stands- Ambts- und Gewerbs-Personen, mit beygedruckter Sittlichen Lehre und Biblischen Concepten. Durch welche der Fromme mit gebührendem Lob hervor gestrichen, der Tadelhaffte aber mit einer mässsigen Ermahnung nicht verschonet wird; Allen und Jeden heilsam und leitsam, auch so gar nicht ohndienlich denen Predigern verfertiget … Verlegt und mit Kupfern vermengt durch Christoph Weigeln in Nürnberg … Würzburg, gedruckt bey Hiob Hertzen, [volume II and III: Martin Frantz Hertz], 1711, 1711, 1737.

Three volumes, 8vo, engraved frontispiece, pp. [xiv], 532, [12] contents, with 100 engraved plates; engraved frontispiece, pp. [xii], 793, [39] contents, with 77 numbered plates; engraved frontispiece, [xiv], 886, [ii], 887-974, [30] with 103 engraved plates; in all 280 engraved plates; all
titles printed in red and black; occasional very light browning, due to paper quality; some of the plates in weak impressions, but predominantly fine; contemporary full sheep, spines in compartments, with raised bands, elaborately decorated in gilt, matching gilt-lettered lettering and numbering pieces; a very attractive set.
First edition of volume II, second edition of volumes I and III, of the most famous German book of professions, trades and artisans, with nearly three hundred engraved plates, showing different professions at work, in their traditional costume and surrounded by their tools, or equipment. The plates are by Weigel after designs by Jan and Caspar Luiken. In addition to traditional professions and trades, Abraham a Santa Clara also includes gamblers, acrobats, fireeaters and tobacco twisters.

The volumes are a fascinating source of information both on the costumes of representatives of different trades, but also their equipment and surroundings. Many of the scenes were drawn from life by Luiken, and thus preserve a lifelike immediacy. Professions include printer, bookbinder, type caster, musical instrument maker, but also carpenter, bricklayer and builder. Professions like doctor, dentist and lawyer are also included. The engraved plates are accompanied by extensive chapters in prose, outlining the relationship of each craft to God and His divine plan.
Abraham a Santa Clara (1644-1709), an Augustinian friar and preacher was the author of numerous books of popular knowledge, presented with wit and humour. They showed the influence of Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools). More than a century later his fellow-Svabian Schiller summed up his verdict in a letter to Goethe: This Father Abraham is a man of wonderful originality, whom we must respect, and it would be an interesting, though not at all an easy, task to approach or surpass him in mad wit and cleverness'.
It is rare to find all three volumes together, complete with all plates and in a contemporary binding. The first volume was first published in 1699, the following two in 1711. Some earlier doubts on the extent of Abraham a Santa Clara’s contribution to the last two volumes have been dispelled by Karajan and Bertsche.
Bertsche 38a -5, 56 a-2, 57a-2; Dünnhaupt 146, 35 II.1 and 35.III.1; Faber du Faur 1118-1120; Jantz 313, 314; RLIN/OCLC record copies at the University of Chicago, Columbia, Berkeley (volume I only), Duke, the Library of Congress, the University of Philadelphia and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; a Dutch version was published later.

Price: £6000