New edition with 24 figures by Mansfield after Schellenberg
First thus with new half-page engravings by Viennese engraver Johan George Mansfeld after the originals by Swiss artist and entomologist Johann Rudolf Schellenberg published in 1785.
Complete with frontispiece and 24 fine plates depicting allegorical scenes with a skeleton of death (Freund Hein) visiting people from different levels of society.
Includes frontispiece Memento Mori, lovers, desperation, vanity, balloonist, schoolteacher, judge, womanizer, baby in swaddling clothes, monk, poor man, lottery player, Viennese and Roman women, loan shark, glutton, tightrope walker, Masonic lodge, press gang, Berthold Schwarz the alchemist, gentleman's duel, bookseller, woman teacher, quack doctor and the authors.
The final plate shows the author Musaus and artist Schellenberg in an embrace with the skeleton of Death.
Bookplate of Richardi M. Meyer (1860-1914), German philologist, literary historian, scholar and writer.
Some scuffing to the buckram boards, light spotting to the text and plates, but a nice copy of this rare edition.
Beautiful and rare illustrated volume, considered the first modern book on the Dance of Death.