Guldene Aepffel in Silbern Schalen Oder: Schone Und Nutzliche Worte

1745. [EPHRATA IMPRINT]. Guldene Aepffel in Silbern Schalen Oder: Schone Und Nutzliche Worte Und Warheiten Zur gottseligkeit. Enthalten in Sieben Haupt-Theilen Die in Diesem Buch Zusamen Gestellet Sind.... Ephrata, 1745. [8],519, [i.e. 534], [14]pp. 12mo. Contemporary leather over wooden boards. Spine expertly rebacked in matching period style, retaining a portion of the original spine. Lower clasp on binding present, upper clasp lacking. Boards with an expected amount of wear, leather stripped from lower portion of rear board. Text intermittently tanned, some foxing. Titlepage and following thirty leaves with an old stain in the outer portion of each leaf; several later leaves stained in lower margin, not affecting text. Overall, a good plus copy. ARNDT 76. EVANS 5603. NAIP w006901. HILDEBURN 932. DOLL AND FUNKE 370. BENDER, p. 2, SEIDENSTICKER, p.26. Evans calls this "The first book printed at the Brotherhood press" of the Ephrata Cloister, and it is generally accepted as such. Seidensticker suggests that a press was in operation before 1745, though he locates no earlier Ephrata imprints. The "Golden Apple" is a devotional book of the Swiss-Mennonite brethren, originally printed in Basel in 1702 and and reprinted there in 1742. This Ephrata printing is the third edition of the text, containing devotional works from a variety of sources, including the Anabaptists. The overall emphasis of the texts is to shore up the spirit in the face of adversity, and would have been especially useful to the relatively new Ephrata Cloister, which was established in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in 1732. Known for their simple and monastic lifestyle, the community established their own printing press after their leader, Conrad Beissel, had a falling out with the pioneering German-American printer, Christoph Saur. There are two issues of this collection, one with a titlepage noting its intended use by the Ephrata community(as in the present copy) and another with a titlepage noting its use by the Mennonites. The "Mennonite titlepage" is also found in this copy, bound in at the rear, as is sometimes the case.