WERNER, Friedrich Bernhard – Rare Sammelband with 59 engraved, panoramic town views. Folio. Augsburg, Leopold, circa 1730. Contemporary half vellum.

Extensive series of impressive town views after Friedrich Bernhard Werner (1690-1776) which were published seperately by Joseph Friderich Leopold since 1723, and continued by his son Johann Christian Leopold until at least 1755. On the behalf of the Augsburg publishers F.B. Werner traveled through large parts of Europe and produced drawings of many of the larger European cities. Since 1739 he had worked as a geographer and engineer for various Europaen royal dynasties. In 1744 Frederick the Great awarded him the title of Royal Prussian Scenographer. F.B. Werner earned himself outstanding honors for his native Silesia, whose cities, churches, monasteries, and castles he had perpetually immortalized in numerous drawings. Werner produced hundreds of European town views which served as templates for other artists and engravers. His panoramic town views are among the most beautiful and decorative of their age.

Each plate with detailed legend in the lower margin. Although a title page for a collective edition (printed around 1750) is demonstrable, so far no bound copies got into the trade. (See Angelika Marsch, in: Augsburg, the Bilderfabrik Europas (2001), pp. 131-152.) – Our Sammelband contains plates of both Leopold generations, with those of Joseph Friderich bearing the publishing number, which his son (from No. 68) no longer continued.

The following views are present: Aachen, Aalen (2 different versions), Augsburg, Bad Wimpfen, Bad Windsheim, Bamberg, Barcelona, ​​Biberach, Bologna, Bremen, Breslau, Capua, Cologne, Copenhagen, Danzig, Delft, Dinkelsbühl, Dokkum, Dortmund, Erfurt, Esslingen, Geneva, Gorinchem, Graz, Groningen, Heilbronn, Kaufbeuren, Kempten, Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad), Krakow, Leipzig, Lindau, Lisbon, London, Loreto, Lucca, Lübeck, Magdeburg, Mainz, Marseille, Messina, Middelburg, Munich, Nantes, Nördlingen, Novara, Pistoia, Paris, Schwäbisch Gmünd, Speyer, Steyr, Strasbourg , Uppsala, Verona, Wangen, Weil der Stadt, Weißenburg in Bayern and Worms. Additionally a plan of the town of Bischofszell by D. Herrliberger (1743) is included. – In the margins partly lightly stained. – Very good and strong impressions.

Reverence: Paul Bretschneider: Der Zeichner, Stecher und Chronist Friedrich Bernhard Werner und seine Arbeiten. Eigenverlag, Neustadt Schlesien 1921. — Angelika Marsch: Friedrich Bernhard Werner (1690-1776). Ein europäischer Ansichtenzeichner aus Schlesien. Stiftung Kulturwerk Schlesien, Würzburg 1995. — Angelika Marsch: Friedrich Bernhard Werner 1690-1776. Corpus seiner europäischen Städteansichten, illustrierten Reisemanuskripte und der Topographien von Schlesien und Böhmen-Mähren. Anton H. Konrad Verlag, Weißenhorn 2010.

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