Rudbeck’s Atlantica (5 vol)

Olof Rudbeck:

Atland eller Manheim. […] Atlantica sive Manheim. 1-4 + Atlas.

Uppsala, Henric Curio, [1681]-1698 & Stockholm 1863. Complete save for the usual faults, i.e. lacking the leaf ”Ad bibliopegos” in part 1, and volume 4 of course present only in the facsimile edition. First volume in the rare variant with false imprint ”1675”. Atlas in the second edition, rarer than the first. See below.

Fine set. Parts 1-3 in 1700s full calf from the Ducal library of Saxe-Meiningen, spines with raised bands and richly decorated in blind, slighly worn. Volume 4 in attractive modern half calf (Hässlers bokbinderi), spine gilt and with insignificant surface wear, supralibros of Sven Ericsson, top edge gilt, else uncut. Atlas bound c. 1830 in full calf, gilt raised bands, light wear and a very short split to joint. Very fine.

”Olof Rudbeck's Atlantica is the most remarkable manifestation of the ideas behind Sweden's political aspirations to be a great power. […] Rudbeck believed that Plato’s description of the splendid island of Atlantis with its mighty and virtuos people referred to the temple at Old Uppsala and the Swedish people who were the grandchildren of Japhet and had settled in Sweden immediately after the fall of the town of Babel. […] The Atlantica is one of the last attempts to reconcile the authority of the Ancients with the empirical observations of the Moderns. The text is an ingenious absurdity with fantastic etymologies mixed with new ideas. […] It aroused immense attention in the world of learning. […] Rudbeck's Gothic primitivism influenced many later writers, like Pierre Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, James Thomson, Edward Gibbon, Mme de Staël and Chateaubriand” (Lindberg, Swedish Books, 33).

[Vol 1:]

1681. (30,5 x 20 cms.) [8] + 892 pp. + engraved frontispiece with a very small repair to verso and lightly spotted. Without the leaf ”Ad bibliopegos” as usual. Pp. 676-7 omitted in pagination, 817-8 repeated. Woodcuts on pp. 711, 841-847 and 856, and a full-page woodcut on final page. First edition, variant A with false imprint ”1675” (but printed 1681). The rarest version according to Klemming. Text fine with just the occasional small stain; one leaf with small marginal paper flaw and leaf 3P3 with an unneccessary strengthening of outer margin. Verso of title with crossed-out library stamp (”Herzoglicher S. Meiningischer Bibliothek”), faint traces of removed bookplate. A few neat old annotations in German on front endleaves. Rear hinge neatly reinforced. Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana 704. Collijn col. 784.

[Vol 2:]

1689. (30 x 20 cms.) [16] + 38 + 672 + 36 + [8] pp. + engraved frontispiece (a little soiled, repair to verso, traces of a small old marginal repair). Pagination very irregular. Numerous woodcuts in text, often full-page. First edition. Text occasionally foxed, page 73 with marginal repair, pp. 163-76 a little stained and with a few small repairs, marginal strengthening of lower margin of pp. 345-8. Front hinge neatly reinforced, faint traces of removed bookplate. Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana 737. Collijn col. 785.

[Vol 3:]

1698. (30,5 x 19,5 cms.) [14] + 762 + [56] pp. Numerous fine woodcuts in text, in some cases oversize and folded. First edition. Text clean and fine throughout, one preliminary leaf with mended tear, a few neat marginal repairs, stamps on verso of title crossed out (”Herzoglicher S. Meiningischer Bibliothek”), very faint traces of removed bookplate. Old library call number in ink. Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana 759, Collijn col. 785.

[Vol 4:]

1702, collotype facsimile 1863 by Mandel in just 100 copies. ”The watermark (Howard) should be enough to avoid confusion”, according to Klemming. No title was printed for the original, and the title of the facsimile is a credible reconstrucion. (35,5 x 22 cms.) [2] + 210 + [20] pp. + facsimile of a large folding map (”Upsalia jovis”, intended for the Atlas, later for volume 3, but never published and preserved in a unique impression). Pp. 105/6 omitted in pagination. The last section contains Klemming’s notes (”Anteckningar om Rudbecks Atland”), supplement, and index. Very fine, top edge gilt, else uncut. The fourth volume is only ever found in facsimile, as most of the (unfinished) edition perished in the Uppsala fire of 1702. Only the first 210 pages had been printed, and no title. Fewer than 10 copies remain today. Klemming consoles those who lament the Atlantica being left unfinished with his opinion that no matter how long Rudbeck had been allowed to continue, there would never have been an end.
Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana 802. Cf. Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana 766.

[Atlas. Plate volume:]

?1698. 46 x 29,5 cms. Second edition, far rarer than the first according to Klemming, and printed on less coarse paper. Fine engraved title by Dionysius Padtbrugge (Padt-Brugge) + 40 leaves with engraved and woodcut illustrations, as well as chronological tables. Some foxing and light staining, some leaves darkened, neat old annotations regarding a few of the woodcuts. As a whole very fine. Bibliotheca Rudbeckiana 760. Collijn col. 785.

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