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SAUER, Christoph (printer). Zionitischer Weyrauchs

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Germantown: Christoph Sauer, 1739. Small thick 8vo (155 x 96 mm). Woodcut ornaments. Text in two columns printed in Gothic type. Contemporary sheep, rebacked to style. Housed in a cloth chemise and red morocco backed slipcase. Condition: a few small ink burn holes on the title, restoration along the fore-edges of the terminal 8 leaves with minor losses to a few letters, foxing and staining as usual, recased with new endpapers but retaining the original pastedowns; lacks the hinges and clasps. Provenance: contemporary German inscriptions on the pastedowns. first american book printed in german type and the first book from sauer's press. This hymnal, produced for the United Brethen at Ephrata and edited by that community's Reverend Peter Miller, contains 691 hymns with many composed by Conrad Beissel and his followers at the Ephrata Cloister. The publication of this book is integral to the history of the establishment of Sauer's famed Germantown Press. Sauer, a tailor in Germany, emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1724, eventually settling in Germantown as a clockmaker in 1731. Beissel, who founded the Ephrata community in 1732, sought an independent German press to publish a new hymnal. As he was distrusted by Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin, Beissel helped Sauer establish his printing establishement. Tradition holds that Sauer, being mechanically minded, constructed the press himself and that the type was imported at the expense of the Brethren. The paper, ironically, was purchased by Beissel for Sauer from Franklin. A falling out with Sauer over his censorship of a hymn found in this work led to the establishment of the press at Ephrata, the second German press in America. The title translates, in part: Zionitic Incense Hill or Mountain of Myrrh, wherein there is to be found all sorts of lovely and sweet-scented Incense, prepared according to the Apothecary's Art. Consisting of divers workings of effectual Love in God-awakened souls, which has developed in many and various spiritual lovely Hymns. "As the edition was small and the book was in common use for devotional purposes, it has become extremely scarce, nearly all of the few known copies being imperfect" (Hildeburn). Evans 4466; Hildeburn 617; Reese, Printers' First Fruits 65; Robacker, Pennsylvania German Literature, p. 31; Sabin 106364; Sasche, German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, 1: pp. 312-349.

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