[LAMBERG, Maximilian Joseph von.]

Tablettes Fantastiques ou Bibliotheque tres particuliere pour quelques pais et pour quelques hommes. Par l'Auteur du Mémorial d'un Mondain.

      Dessau, Société typographique, 1782. 4to, pp. [iv], 172, with one folding printed table bound after p. 98; paper lightly but evenly browned, due to paper quality; contemporary calf-backed paste-paper boards, spine in compartments with floral designs, gilt-lettered spine label; a very good copy. First edition, very rare, of a curious work by the Moravian savant Lamberg, covering music, alchemy, astrology, mathematics, women, the theatre, and current affairs. Partly designed as a commonplace book, with Lamberg's aperçus on a wide variety of subjects, partly fictitious dialogues between Lamberg (under the pseudonym Sergis) and Sir Earl, apparently count Saint-Germain, the celebrated adventurer and mystery figure who enthralled all of Europe with his linguistic, musical, alchemistical and conversational powers and his discovery of the secret of ever-lasting life, discussing a wide variety of subjects organised in a curious sequence of journées and stations, some of them with quasi stage directions. Amongst Lamberg's observations there is a brief consideration of grammar, where he tries to deconstruct grammar in a similar manner to Diderot's deconstruction of the senses in his work Lettres sur les Sourds et Muets. Chapters on ciphers and secret language are followed by those on superstition, magic, libraries, women, collections etc. The last section is entitled Question sur une nouvelle manière de comter, ou Bustroph numéral, dedié aux arithmeticiens modernes, containing an application of the poetic device of a 'bustroph' to mathematical calculations. Count Lamberg (1729-1792), educated at the universities of Breslau, Berlin, and Halle, was destined for the diplomatic service. Because of the intrigues of a courtesan, he became discredited and retreated to Augsburg. Here he devoted himself to scientific research. He corresponded with Hume, Voltaire, Algarotti, d'Alembert and Casanova and published on scientific subjects. He formed one of the most notable 'cabinets de physique' in Germany. He was admitted to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1773. Caillet III, 6023; Goedeke VII, 9, 10; NBG, XXIX, 119; Querard IV, 481; very rare OCLC locates three copies in Germany, Duke, and Randolph-Macon College only.