Tag Archive: 0cross-cultural

Rilke wrote Das Marien-Leben at the castle at Duino, on the Italian Adriatic coast, in late 1911 and early 1912, just before he began work on what was to become the monumental Duineser Elegien.  In the preface to his translation in 1951, Stephen Spender notes that ‘Rilke wrote of the Marien-Leben as being “a little […]

German interest in folksongs began in the middle of the eighteenth century, stoked in no small part by the Europe-wide mania for Ossian.  Thomas Percy’s influential Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765) was also much admired, and the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, who had been sent a copy by Rudolf Erich Raspe (of Munchausen fame) […]

Many of the items in the Anglo-German Cultural Relations catalogue are rife with cross-cultural connections. One such item is the copy of John Frederick Lampe’s A plain and compendious Method of teaching Thorough Bass, after the most rational Manner … (London, J. Wilcox, 1737). This, the first (and only) edition was dedicated to Colonel John Blathwayt […]

Another book from the recently-released Anglo-German Cultural Relations catalogue: Albrecht von Haller’s Usong.  An Eastern Narrative …  (London: Printed for the Translator; and sold by F. Newbery … and J. Walter …  1772). This first edition in English was published only a year after the original had appeared in Germany, apparently at the instigation of Queen Charlotte.  ‘This […]

The late eighteenth century saw a rise in personal travel and tourism, making it only a matter of time before travel accounts became an amusing and sought-after genre of reading material. Item 40 from Anglo-German Cultural Relations is one such example, and was both lauded and entertaining: Karl Philipp Moritz‘s Reisen eines Deutschen in England […]

The story of Anglo-German cultural relations is inextricably linked with the British royal family, particularly in the Victorian era. This connection is perhaps most apparent in item of 204 of Anglo-German Cultural Relations (also listed as no. 16 in our New York book fair list): an inscribed copy of the first edition of German Hymns […]