ETTERLIN, Petermann.

Kronica von der loblichen Eydtgnoschaft Jr harkomen vnd sust seltzam strittenn vnd geschichten.

      24 December 1507, Basel, Michael Furter - With woodcut title border on the left and below the title (printed from 4 blocks), woodcut printer's device on leaf 124, and 29 woodcut illus., some with the monogram DS (Daniel Schwegler?; 2 full-page, 16 repeated). 8 unn. leaves index, 124 num. leaves. Small folio. 18th-century half calf. Basel, Michael Furter, 24 December 1507. First edition, second issue of the first printed chronicle of Switzerland. Petermann Etterlin (c. 1430/40-1509), town scribe at Lucerne, wrote the work in 1505-07, drawing substantially on other chronicles such as Schradin, Schedel, Lirer, and Rolewinck. However, he is the first to present the entire history of the Swiss confederacy, starting with St. Meinrad's foundation of the monastery of Einsiedeln (c. 835) and leading up to the year 1503. He may have been motivated by the newly growing self-confidence of the confederacy after the Swabian wars, and the attacks of German humanists like Jakob Wimpfeling, who called the Swiss an uncivilized nation disloyal to the empire. The text was corrected by Rudolf Husenegk who is mentioned in the colophon. The 29 illustrations printed from 12 different blocks can be divided into four groups. One group of four cuts is based on the St. Meinrad legend printed by Furter in 1496. Two other cuts are from the "Revelationes" of Methodius (Furter 1498 and later). They show a battle between crusaders and Turks and the siege of a city by a Christian ruler, possibly Charlemagne before a Spanish city, but showing sights of Rome. Two further illustrations with similar contents, repeated several times, are more subtly stylized. Judging from the costumes depicted, they date after 1500, but it has not been ascertained whether they were drawn especially for the present work or not. One shows two armies engaged in battle, one the successful conquest of a city by confederacy soldiers. The last and most important group of five illustrations, attributed to the artist "DS" and commissioned for this chronicle, show: 1. Dedication to the empire on title verso, with the emperor enthroned, surrounded by electors, three men kneeling in front of him, one of them opening a book (the present chronicle?). They are often interpreted as being Etterlin, the corrector Huseneck, and the publisher Furter. 2. Dedication to the confederacy (fol. A I), a full-page heraldic composition with the imperial eagle and crown in the center, surrounded by the coats of arms of 16 cantons, richly figured. 3. Large view of Lucerne, mirror-inverted, very detailed. It is the earliest printed depiction of Lucerne and ranks, with the views of Basel and Geneva in the Nuremberg chronicle (1493), among the earliest Swiss town views. 4. Almost full-page illustration with episodes from the fabulous past of Switzerland, including a dragon. 5. The first pictorial representation of the famous scene, synonymous with the Swiss spirit of insurrection, of Tell aiming at the apple on his son's head. - Title somewhat soiled with old repairs to several tears, brownish coloring to title border and parts of the woodcut on title verso, occasional waterstaining in lower outer margin towards the end, scattered old ms. marginalia. A fine copy. - VD 16 E 4110; STC, (German), 287; Panzer I/284, 595; Muther I/70, 495; Lerch-Bortoli, Anmerkungen zu P. Etterlins Kronika in: Festschrift A. Seebass, p. 117f.; Oberrhein. Buchillustration II, 43a-f; Bock, Meister DS, 7f.; Quellenwerk zur Entstehung der Schweiz. Eidgenossenschaft II, vol. 3, pp. 37f.; Zemp, Schweizer Bilderchroniken, pp. 89f.; LGBW II, 439 (Meister DS); Feller/Bonjour 63. HELVETICA: ALLGEMEIN ; [Attributes: First Edition]