Compendium seckendorfianum oder kurzgefaste Reformations-Geschichte aus des herrn Veit Ludwigs von Seckendorf historia lutheranismi…

Frankfurt und Leipzig: hallischen Wasisenhaus-Buchladens, 1755. Hardcover. See Description. Second German Edition, enlarged. 8vo. 4 volumes bound in two. Volume I. pp. [40] 471, [1]. Volume II. p. 428. Volume III. pp. [46], 556. Volume IV. pp. 512. Anhang (Addenda) pp. 212, [192]. With frontispiece engraving of the author in volume I. Woodcut illustrated initials throughout; engraved headpiece at the beginning of each volume / section. Bound in full calf with spines gilt in five compartments; rubbing and wear, labels chipped; head and tail caps are carefully restored including some gilt lines which are renewed; corner tips of boards are repaired. Marbled fly-leaves are lacking in the first volume. Notes are written in an early hand on front blank leaf of volume I. Title page is printed in red and black. Interior is generally clean with occasional mild foxing, soiling and wear; one word of marginalia is written in an old hand on p.43 of volume I. Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf (1626-1692) German historian and jurist. His most important work, "Commentarius historicus et apologeticus de Lutheranismo sive de Reformatione" (first published at Leipzig, 1692 in 3 vols) is an extensive history of the Reformation and the Thirty Years War which is still valuable to historians today. Seckendorf both utilized and quoted from many primary source manuscripts and printed materials found in the libraries of the Saxon princes. His work was in part an answer to the Jesuit Louis Maimbourg’s "Histoire du Lutheranisme" (published Paris, 1680). The first German translation of Seckendorf’s history (revised - shortening the lengthy quotations from Maimbourg) was printed in 1714. A second German edition (here listed) edited with additions by Benjamin Lindern appeared in 1755. According to the scholar L.W. Spitz, Lindnern dropped Seckendorf’s complex arrangement (which followed Maimbourg) and reduced the work "to a more continuous narrative." [See L.W. Spitz, "Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf and the ‘Historia Lutheranismi.’" Journal of Religion Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan. 1945) pp.33-44.]