Kleine artige Kupfer: Buchillustration im 18. Jahrhundert by Sandro Jung (review)

This excellent book accompanied a noteworthy exhibition at Wolfenbüttel's Bibliotheca Augusta in 2018 curated by Sandro Jung, the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Text and Print Culture at Ghent University. Both showcase important eighteenth-century holdings in the Herzog August Library and Sandro Jung's private collection. The publication draws on and expands Jung's eminent studies on the complexities of eighteenth-century print culture and visual cultures in Britain, such as The Publishing and Marketing of Illustrated Literature in Scotland (2017) and James Thomson's "The Seasons," Print Culture, and Visual Interpretation, 1730–1842 (2015). The book consists of a catalogue of fifty-seven titles with illustrations and a diligently researched and lucidly written introductory article on literary book illustrations in the eighteenth century, its golden age when editions were often decorated with vignettes and full-page copperplates. Jung emphasizes that the illustrations provided not only visual appeal but also important aesthetic information and reflected reading experiences. Readers were to interpret their relation to the text. Each catalogue item is accompanied by an excellent description or concise analysis in clear and precise language, often with quotes from the illustrated text, important technical facts or comments on the edition, publisher, etc.

In his article and in his selection of illustrations, Jung focuses on an aspect previously neglected in the scholarship—namely, transnational contexts and processes of cultural exchange, especially between England and the Germanspeaking countries. He examines illustrations in different editions and in French and German translations of British bestsellers, such as Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), James Thomson's The Seasons (1730), and James Macpherson's Ossian poems, as well as in "Prunkausgaben," which are luxuriously produced editions of canonical works such as Milton's Paradise Lost and also of Germanlanguage works that had spread beyond the borders of the country of origin—for example, poetry by Bürger and Gessner. Gessner as both author and illustrator makes a case for the importance of Switzerland in the context of illustrations. The selection also includes illustrated works about nature, comic and religious poetry as well as fables, the Münchhausen adventure stories, and children's readings (Der Kinderfreund). A rarity is the erotic poem "Die schöne Nacht" by Johann Christoph Rost, which was printed in its entirety (fourteen pages) in copperplates with large vignettes. Another special treat is four examples of vignettes in pocket diaries (Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas, 1794 and 1795, from the private collection), a neglected and ephemeral print genre. All the catalogue items show the variety in format, illustrative modes, and national practices.

A few illustrations of bestsellers appear to have been simply copied, due to a lack of any copyright regulation. Thus, Robinson illustrations, in particular, could serve as teaching material for illustrators in other countries who imitated them but also distanced themselves from established paradigms and selected new scenes and themes for illustration.

In terms of illustrators, special emphasis is given to works by Salomon Gessner, Gottlieb Leberecht Crusius, and Daniel Chodowiecki, highlighting ways in which they engaged with English and French illustration practices. Jung argues convincingly that illustration in the German states developed a particularly rich spectrum, which adapted international influences in different ways because of the decentralized book trade and an emphasis on originality and interpretation. Contrary to French and English tendency toward larger illustrations, Chodowiecki turned to illustrating the smaller almanacs, a format which, in turn, became popular internationally in the nineteenth century.

The book has clearly benefited from the collaboration of Herzog August Library's photography studio and publications division. The layout is generous, usually allowing one page of text per page of image(s) in the catalogue. The images are of the highest quality, often larger than the original and a few reproducing exquisitely colored "Sammlerstücke" (Courbould's "Autumn"), and examples of the special and expensive "Farbdruck à la poupèe" (Thurston's "Summer" engraved by J. Scott; "La Mort d'Abel"; "Paradis Perdu"), a...