Nearly 300 year old German book found... can anyone read it?

[aaron7]

Picked this old book up yesterday!

All I know is the copyright says 1725. I'm lost otherwise!

Looks like religious imagery inside (and some scary ones at that!) so I'm guessing it's a Christian text of some kind.

I know this forum isn't for books but being so old I had to share!

 

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[jeff of pa]

I'd say you got a nice buy there Aaron

 

[jeff of pa]

Line reads

an amorous Geele in ZEFU (could be amorous Girl ?)

or something completely different.

Obviously I'm having problems with script but ?

 

[aaron7]

I'm not really sure how to go about translating this. Going to try that cell phone app after work and see if that can read any of it!

 

[jeff of pa]

Yes I can pick out about a third of the Words, But German doesn't translate well
one word at a time or words with something missing in between

example

I see "morgens und ubends" in red

Morgens = in the morning
und = and
ubends not german

probably "morgens und abends" which is "morning & evening"

getting bug eyed right now someone here should be better at 18th century german script

 

[aaron7]

Anything I could take pics of that would help? Random pages?

 

[jeff of pa]

yea I don't know I guess the cover& spine is blank ?

TUGEND near the top = Virtue.

if TUGEND is what I see

 

[jeff of pa]

at the bottom Published by Nathanael Lumscher 1728 may help

 

[DCMatt]

It's a book on Christian virtue:

from Benjamin Schmolckens and other divinely blessed teachers

Tugend Schmuck

Sadly, it does not translate well with the free on line translators.

DCMatt

 

[DCMatt]

Available in Google books:

 

[jeff of pa]

LOL Leave it to Matt

 

[DCMatt]

Here is some irony for those of you familiar with the modern meaning of "schmuck":

The German word Schmuck means "jewelry, adornments";[SUP][7][/SUP] the equivalent in Yiddish is schmock or shmock.[SUP][3][/SUP] In German the pejorative "schmuck" would be Schmock, closer to the original Yiddish word. The transition of the word from meaning "jewel" to meaning "*****" is related to the description of a man's genitals as "the family jewels."[SUP][8][/SUP]
The Online Etymology Dictionary derives it from Eastern Yiddish shmok, literally "*****," from Old Polish smok, "grass snake, dragon,"[SUP][9][/SUP] but Leo Rosten cites Dr. Shlomo Noble of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research as saying that shmok derives from shmuck and not the other way around.
However, according to the lexicographer Michael Wex, the author of How to Be a Mentsh (And Not a Shmuck), the Yiddish and German "schmucks" are completely unrelated. "Basically, the Yiddish word comes out of baby talk," Wex said. "A little boy’s ***** is a shtekl, a 'little stick.' Shtekl became shmeckle, in a kind of baby-rhyming thing, and shmeckle became shmuck. Shmeckle is prepubescent and not a dirty word, but shmuck, the non-diminutive, became obscene."[SUP][[/SUP]

DCMatt

 

[stefen]

Interesting book...possibly one of the first 'Blue Books' of the time...

At least its worthy of being appraised...if its available in Google books (as indicated by DCMatt), it may not be a rarity unless its a 1st edition...then condition may or may not be a factor.

 

[aaron7]

Cool info!! Thanks!

Few more pics:

 

[DCMatt]

Interesting book...possibly one of the first 'Blue Books' of the time...

At least its worthy of being appraised...if its available in Google books (as indicated by DCMatt), it may not be a rarity unless its a 1st edition...then condition may or may not be a factor.

Ubend(s) Roughly translated implies that someone is a homosexual in a malicious manner; "Oh hello David, UBEND!" (such as in you bend-over)

And the yiddish term 'schmuck' is the diminitive term for *****...

Not ubend but ABEND. As Jeff surmised, it means evening. Schmuck in the old German means "jewel". Schmolckens was a Christian theologian. He penned a number of books and also wrote hymns. The title probably would have translated to something like "Virtue Jewels" (tid-bits).

DCMatt

 

[stefen]

I stand corrected...

 

[DCMatt]

The image in the last picture is for Psalm 38:9

"Herr, vor dir ist alle meine Begierde, und mein Seufzen ist dir nicht verborgen."

"Lord, in front of you is all my desire, and my sighing is not hidden."

DCMatt

 

[aaron7]

Well, no idea if it's worth anything but it's now my oldest book

 

[yaxthri]

Aaron7 this is a great find!

It's a "Reader's digest" of Christian scriptures with an added Songbook, published by N. Lumscher in Kulmbach, Germany
Stadt Kulmbach - Alle Infos zu Rathaus, Kultur, Wirtschaft und Tourismus.

If you could get it to a bookbinder you trust, who would treat this relic with respect and restore it a little, the value would go up.
I could not find another copy online either on sale or sold so this could be a rare book, I don;t say it is, you should check a little more. The Kulmbach library might be interested in buying it...
The copper engravings, judging on the two you show, seem to be christian allegories, would love to see them all...

My mother is German and our family owns some old German books. I love old books and I had to teach myself to read the "Gottisch" printing (it was in use up to the 1940's) in order to be able to read them :-)
So I can help.
Here's a translation to the front page (I had to change the position of some words/phrases to give a translation with a somehow correct english syntax, that makes sense).
I tried to keep the colors of the original printing so that one can spot the corresponding text.

 

[aaron7]

Unfortunately I don't know of any book places (let alone any I'd know to trust!) but I'll start researching this. Any idea what something of that nature may cost?

I really appreciate all the help with identification and translation!

Unsure what the future of this book is but for now it's safe and sound.