Oblong folio, (370 x 270 mm). Engraved title-page, 1 p. of letterpress dedication, 92 engraved plates (including 13 half-titles), some with tipped-in overslips, one oversized and folded in.[Bound with:] Weckherlin, Georg Rodolf. Kurtze Beschreibung, deß zu Stutgarten, beyden Fürstlichen Kindtauf und Hochzeit, jüngst gehaltenen Frewden-Fests [...]. Tübingen,Dietrich Werlin, 1618. (2), 4, (2), 5-71, (1) pp. With woodcut arms to title-page. Near-contemporary blind-stamped calf, rebacked with prettily gilt elephant crest in each of six compartments; edges sprinkled red. Minimal water-staining here and there, and some occasional light browning, an excellent copy, clean and with wide margins.

The drawings for the procession plates are attributed to the Dutch-born artist Esaias van Hulsen. Several of the engravings are signed by Friedrich Brentel of Strasbourg and Matthias Merian, but Hulsen probably also participated in the engraving. Nine engraved paper hearts are tipped in over figures on several plates, six bearing eyes and ears to symbolize Love and Knowledge; the other three are crowned and engraved with smaller hearts, the central one clasped by two hands.

Werckherlin's appended work supplies the textual programme: an explanatory framework of the rules, protocol, and meaning of the entertainments, also of linguistic value for including transcripts of poems and speeches, frequently in broad Swabian dialect.

Produced on the eve of the Thirty Years' War, the volume stands as one of the defining survivals of a confident Protestant court culture in south-west Germany, and among the most visually persuasive celebrations of dynastic continuity in the German Baroque.

Provenance: the personal copy of the contributor Rudolf Weckherlin (1584-1653) with his handwritten ownership to the title-page of the first work. The spine bears the elephant device used by the Swabian counts of Helfenstein and their possessions.

VD 17, 23:251730Q; 23:251744B. Graesse III, 388; VI, 427. Lipperheide Sbd 6-7. Ruggieri 957. Wüthrich, Merian I, pp. 47f. Thieme/B, XVIII, 114. Vinet 740. Rahn 6-63. Hollstein IX (1953), 155, 2-93.