GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832). Des Herrn Göthe sämtliche Werke. Biel: Helmann, 1775-1776.

First edition of the collected works, very rare as a complete set, published before the Himburg edition, which had long been believed to be the first. This set includes the exceptionally rare third volume, lacking even in such comprehensive collections as Kippenberg’s and Speck’s as well as in institutional holdings bar a very few. O. Deneke remarks on the perspicacity of the Biel bookseller Helmann in intuiting that Goethe’s popularity would make such an audacious editorial undertaking financially viable. Twelve unauthorized reprints of the works were published in the interval between this landmark edition and the first authorized collected edition (1787-90). Kippenberg 324; Speck 1; Brieger 736; Hagen 1.

3 volumes, octavo (159 x 98mm). (First and third title with part number inlaid at the time of the binding, the first with a typographic strip, the second with a facsimile strip.) Modern period-style gilt leather bindings.

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