Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Eighteen - International League ...

Mesmerism Defended
93. [SERVAN, Joseph Michel Antoine.] Doutes d’un Provincial,
proposés a MM. les Médecins-Commissaires, chargés par le Roi, de
l’examen du Magnétisme animal. Lyon, Paris, Prault, 1784. £350
8vo, [ii], pp. 126; uncut in contemporary block-printed wrappers,
overprinting waste from a religious publication, printed in red and
black.
First edition, one of two issues, of Servan’s vigorous defence of Mesmerism,
following the negative reports published by the Société Royale de Médecine.
‘The best of the many attacks published by the pro-Mesmerists against
the report of the first Royal Commission’ (Norman M142). Servan
(1737–1807) a distinguished French lawyer, and associate of Voltaire and
d’Alembert, defends Mesmer by pointing out the subjectivity of the report of
the royal commission, making it ‘one of the most thoughtful contemporary
criticisms of the findings of the commission’ (Crabtree 111). He supports
his stance by personal experience, and reports that he had been cured by a
Mesmerist when traditional medicine had failed to help him.
Mesmer’s theory of a universal magnetic fluid influencing tides and
men alike, led to a large scale investigation of psychological phenomena,
resulting ultimately in modern psychopathology and psychotherapy. By
concentrating on the ‘rapport’ of patient and doctor, Mesmer seems to
have dealt effectively with nervous disorders. A highly effective publicist,
Mesmer generated enormous interest in his teachings all over Europe.
See Caillet 10163 and Cioranescu 60157 for other issue with imprint; Norman
catalogue M 142; Crabtree 111.
With Close to 6000 Woodcut Pictograms
94. [SEYBOLD, Johann Heinrich.] Teutsch-Lateinisches Wörter-
Büchlein zum Nutz und Ergötzung der Schul-Jugend zusammen
getragen, und mit 6000 darzu dienlichen Bildern gezieret. Deme
noch über das eine Kurtz-gefasste Lateinische Sprach-Übung und
ziemliche Anzahl auserlesener Sprüche beygefüget… Dictionariolum
Germanico-Latinum in Usum & delectationem Scholasticae
Juventutis. Nuremberg, Johann Zieger, 1703. £2,400
8vo, pp. [ii], 256, 44, 48 index; with nearly 6000 pictograms in the
dictionary part of the text; some light browning and dust-soiling, title
page a little creased, and clean tear to one leaf; but in all a clean copy in
contemporary full vellum.
Third edition of this very attractive Latin-German school book (first
published in 1683 or 1685), extensively illustrated with pictograms
arranged in three vertical columns per page, to illustrate the meaning of Latin
words. Despite their small size the illustrations are immensely informative.
The dictionary part is followed by an introduction to Latin Grammar
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue eighteen
(Rudimenta grammaticae) and some proverbs (Farrago Sententiarum).
The subject arrangement is similar to Comenius’ Orbis Pictus, but much
enlarged. The illustrations are clearly meant to assist the memorisation of
the vocabulary.
Seybold (ca. 1620–90?), a school teacher and educator from Schwäbisch
Hall, was widely known as a ‘superior mind’ and a progressive educator. He
is important as the author of a collection of proverbs which appeared first at
Ulm in 1654 under the title of Fasciculus Adagiorum Latino-Germanicorum.
His translation of the Latin proverbs is worded not in bookish German but
in the colloquial, with free use of popular sayings and turns of speech (Faber