Solitude considered, with respect to its influence upon the mind and the heart. Written originally in German, by M. Zimmermann, aulic counsellor and physician to His Britannic Majesty at Hanover. Translated from the French of J. B. Mercier
New-York: Mott & Lyon, [1796]. Original Edition, Not a Reprint; First New York Edition. Leather bound. Brown leather/boards; swirl design. Seven non-raised gilt bands on spine with brown leather title block and gilt lettering. v, [1], 238 pp. with no illustrations. Text block clean and totally tight but with light age toning to the print. Spine leather cracking vertically in two places; leather title block detaching at right edge. General rubbing to covers with wear to edges and head/tail of spine worn down. Paste-down from Essex Institute (presumably library) on front end paper, dated either 1907 or 1967. Fountain pen name/date on title page and last page, Mary Van Schalkwyck, 1884. Item #161872
Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann was a Swiss philosophical writer, naturalist, and physician. This was his second book, written beginning in 1756. The owner of this particular volume, Mary Van Schalkwyck, likely is the same one referenced thus: " In the epistolary conversation she and Mary Van Schalkwyck published in five installments between July 1804 and July 1805, Mary Emerson played the part of Constance to her friend's Cornelia, in elevated discourses on death, the imagination, the study of nature, and biography." The Mary Emerson in question was Mary Moody Emerson, Ralph Waldo's aunt. Mary Van Schalwyck likely was Mary Wilder Van Schalwyck. A nice memento for someone interested in the genealogy of Mary Van Schalwyck and an interesting book in its own right. NOTE: This is the scarce first New York printing.
Price: $500.00