Disastrous History
BISSEL, Johannes.
Illustrium ab orbe condito ruinarum decades quatuor ... decadis primae pars prior almae congregationi academicae majori B. Mariae Virginis ab angelo salutatae Wirceburgi in strenam oblata anno M.D.CC.LXII. Würzburg, ‘typis viduae Walderi’, [1762].
8vo, pp. [24], 344; woodcut vignette to title, woodcut head- and tailpieces; small loss to upper blank corners of first two leaves, toned, occasional spotting; overall a good copy in contemporary calf, spine in compartments richly decorated in black and with the date 1762, gilt edges; some rubbing to extremities, abrasion to lower board, wanting rear flyleaf; ownership inscription to front flyleaf ‘ex libris K. Welz pas: in Hüttenberg(?)'.
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Illustrium ab orbe condito ruinarum decades quatuor ... decadis primae pars prior almae congregationi academicae majori B. Mariae Virginis ab angelo salutatae Wirceburgi in strenam oblata anno M.D.CC.LXII.
Scarce later edition of the first part of a remarkable work by the Swabian Jesuit Johannes Bissel (1601–1682) on ‘ruinous’ events throughout human history, printed by ‘widow Walder’.
Bissel’s Illustrium ab orbe condito ruinarum decades was first published, in several parts, at Amberg and Dillingen between 1656 and 1665. This, a Würzburg reprint of the very first part, covers the fall of Lucifer, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, and the Tower of Babel.
Bissel joined the Jesuits after studies in Dillingen, subsequently teaching in Regensburg and then Ingolstadt. After working briefly as a court historian, he became a preacher in Dillingen and Amberg, spicing up his sermons with subjects drawn from myth and legend.
Widow Walder’s first husband was the Würzburg printer Nikolaus Rausch, after whose death in 1743 she appears to have operated independently for several years. In 1749 she married the printer Daniel Christoph Walder, succeeding him in turn when widowed for a second time in 1756. Her other publications include a compendium of universal history, a work on the sacraments, a tragicomedy on Matthias Corvinus, and academic pieces on King Charles I and Alexander the Great.
No copies traced in the UK or US.
Cf. Sommervogel I, col. 1515; not traced in VD18.