Comments on: Kinder und Jugendbücher from the 18th century

Kinder und Jugendbücher from the 18th century

BlackLeotardFront — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 17:59:59 -0800

A gallery of scanned German children's books from the 18th and 19th centuries. Sounds dry, but the plates are high-resolution and gorgeous. Fans of old-school engraving, illustration, and Bibliodyssey-esque curiosities will not be disappointed. Highly extensive and bandwidth-intensive.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:08:43 -0800

Many thanks for this.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:08:47 -0800

Making any particular recommendation at all is difficult since there is so much excellent content to choose from and I haven't perused it all, but be sure to check out: Bilder-Catechismus Naturgeschichte für Kinder Lehrreiche Fabeln

By: New England Cultist

New England Cultist — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:22:13 -0800

Be still my bibliophilic heart! The Robinsonades are beautiful.

By: various

various — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:24:13 -0800

Thanks for posting!

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:28:59 -0800

These are great! This one is weirdly modern.

By: vkxmai

vkxmai — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:39:20 -0800

Das Nationen-Alphabet ist allerdings nicht modern. Vielen Dank!

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:41:27 -0800

Doesn't sound dry at all. I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night than enjoying these. Well, I could think of a better way. But this is a good post and some of those images are very nice. Thank you.

By: computech_apolloniajames

computech_apolloniajames — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:25:27 -0800

Eponysterical, marxchivist!

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:36:29 -0800

This one is weirdly modern Hmmm. I guess that didn't work. I was referring to New England Cultist 's link, plate number 6.

By: Mizu

Mizu — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:38:03 -0800

Oh, wonderful stuff. Thanks so much for digging this up! Check out the giraffe.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:44:50 -0800

Send up the peacay signal quick!

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 19:47:25 -0800

I had a whole shelf-full of children's stories, legends, fables, fairy tales and nursery rhymes, in leatherbound hardback, with engravings to illustrate each story, very similar to these. I learned to read on that stuff, and now I can find no mention if it online. My favorites were the American myths, with tales of Coyote and the Thunderbird filling my childhood dreams. There was also a German (I think) volume, with all of the Brothers Grimm stuff. Best illustrations, by far, but the Coyote stories just struck something with me. I wish I could track them down, I want a set for my little girl to pull off the shelf and read when she's old enough, like I did. Messy, drooling, snotty kid, and my parents just let me man-handle their books... I was so in love with them, I near destroyed them. I think my sister did them in for good, because they weren't on the shelves after we moved when I was 11.

By: peacay

peacay — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:01:42 -0800

Ah yes, I have vague good memories of this site. Good call.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:58:19 -0800

Ha! I couldn't imagine you hadn't seen it, peacay, but I didn't think to search BO. I came to it roundabout via ephemera collecting man and Agence Eureka, I think.

By: motorcycles are jets

motorcycles are jets — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 08:27:29 -0800

So are these are all public domain?

By: jfuller

jfuller — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:37:20 -0800

Should have guessed you'd already have seen it, p. (Can I just grab this chance to say thanks very much for your terrific site and your stuff on flickr?)

By: Beardman

Beardman — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:38:14 -0800

I and my desktop background thank you profusely.

By: peacay

peacay — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:35:00 -0800

-So are these are all public domain?- I am certainly no expert and my understanding might be off base but I don't think 'public domain' means the same thing in Germany. While it might be technically copyright-free, I believe that, by law, usage of any books and digital images owned by national institutions warrant a fee payable to the government and collected by each institution. At least, this was what I was officially told a couple of years ago trying to get usage permission for 19th cent. images to put in a book. I don't remember if they said it was just for commercial use or not (I suspect it is).