[ALCOHOL ABUSE] [GERMAN] Von dem greüwlichen Laster der Trunckenhayt...

[Augsburg, Heinrich Streiner, 1533?]. Hardcover. Early 19th century shell-marbled boards. Very good. 38 leaves, (6 pp. manuscript). With large and unusually detailed woodcut (10 x 12 cm.) on title-page revealing an extravagant banquet and a man vomiting, by H. Weiditz, with decorated woodcut initials. Set in schwabacher types with incidental fraktur. A treatise on the excesses of eating and drinking and the abuse and use of wine and other alcoholic beverages. Franck discusses several illnesses of the body and mind, real or imagined, that are caused by drunkenness - attributing a variety of social ills to due the consumption of alcohol - including blasphemy, idolatry, theft, murder and even the German Peasant War of 1525.

Sebastian Franck, (c.1499 - c.1542) was a German Protestant Reformer and theologian who converted from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism but departed from Martin Luther's views, emphasizing a mystical attitude in place of dogmatic beliefs. Franck moved from Nürnberg to Strasbourg where he was imprisoned for his views - he was expelled from Strasbourg and ended up in Ulm, where he established himself as a printer. The first edition of this treatise is believed to be published in 1528 - other editions published in 1531 have 32 leaves, and this edition believed to be published in 1533, expanded to 38 leaves. Six pages of hand written text, bound in - written by the previous owner who later edited a book by Franck. Notes written on verso of both front and back covers. Previous owner's embossed stamp to the lower corner of the title page along with hand written number - 1528. Former library stamp on bottom edge - Ambrose Swasey Library. Interior clean, boards heavily rubbed at edges with some loss of marbled paper to spine.