{"product_id":"the-bremer-presse-urfaust-one-of-270-in-signed-frieda-thiersch-vellum","title":"The Bremer Presse Urfaust, one of 270, in signed Frieda Thiersch vellum","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFaust. Nach ältester Aufzeichnung 1771–1775 (\u003cem\u003eUrfaust\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/strong\u003e Bad Tölz, Bremer Presse, 1920.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of 270 numbered copies on handmade paper, 110 pp., the seventh book of the Bremer Presse, a very early printing of the press. Chancery folio (270 × 167 mm).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOriginal vellum with gilt fillet borders to covers and spine, signed \"Bremer Binderei F. Thiersch\" (immaculately preserved; handmade-paper text in exceptional condition).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Bremer Presse \u003cem\u003eUrfaust\u003c\/em\u003e closes the sequence by returning to the beginning.\u003c\/strong\u003e This is neither the completed \u003cem\u003eFaust\u003c\/em\u003e nor the 1790 \u003cem\u003eFragment\u003c\/em\u003e, but the earliest stratum of the work, the pre-classical text that survives only because Luise von Göchhausen, a lady-in-waiting at the Weimar court, made a private copy of Goethe's early manuscript; the original was lost, and the Göchhausen copy was rediscovered in 1887. That history of loss and recovery makes the 1920 Bremer Presse edition conceptually exact. The press, founded by Willy Wiegand and Ludwig Wolde, was among the great German private presses of the century; Anna Simons contributed initials and ornament, and Frieda Thiersch gave its bindings their authority. To print the \u003cem\u003eUrfaust\u003c\/em\u003e at the Bremer Presse was to give Goethe's earliest \u003cem\u003eFaust\u003c\/em\u003e text a private-press monument, and the signed vellum binding, \"Bremer Binderei F. Thiersch,\" completes the argument.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat that earliest text preserves is the \u003cem\u003eFaust\u003c\/em\u003e of the early 1770s, the \u003cem\u003eSturm und Drang\u003c\/em\u003e draft Goethe brought from Frankfurt to Weimar in 1775 [Schmidt, \u003cem\u003eGoethes Faust in ursprünglicher Gestalt\u003c\/em\u003e]. There is no \u003cem\u003ePrologue in Heaven\u003c\/em\u003e here and no wager; Mephistopheles is the lesser figure and Faust stands more nearly alone, so that the whole weight falls on the seduction and destruction of Margarete. Much of it is still in prose, the form Goethe later lifted into verse everywhere but the one scene, \"\u003cem\u003eTrüber Tag. Feld,\u003c\/em\u003e\" that he left unversed to the end. And it is harsher than what came after: the play breaks off with Gretchen given over to judgement, lacking the voice from above—the \"\u003cem\u003eIst gerettet!\u003c\/em\u003e\" of the 1808 text—that Goethe would add only later to redeem her [Schmidt, \u003cem\u003eursprünglicher Gestalt\u003c\/em\u003e; Schöne, \u003cem\u003eFaust. Kommentar\u003c\/em\u003e].\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePROVENANCE\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Heribert Tenschert Collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eREFERENCES\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCurt Visel, \u003cem\u003eDie Bremer Presse, Geschichte und Bibliographie\u003c\/em\u003e (Munich, 1975); Julius Rodenberg, \u003cem\u003eDeutsche Pressen\u003c\/em\u003e(Zurich, 1925), describing the edition after the Göchhausen manuscript, edited by Max Hecker, with title and initial by Anna Simons, in 270 copies (Bad Tölz, 1920); W. H. Bruford, \u003cem\u003eTheatre, Drama and Audience in Goethe's Germany\u003c\/em\u003e(London, 1950); Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Anna Simons archive; Erich Schmidt (ed.), \u003cem\u003eGoethes Faust in ursprünglicher Gestalt nach der Göchhausenschen Handschrift\u003c\/em\u003e (Weimar: Hermann Böhlau, 1887); Albrecht Schöne, \u003cem\u003eFaust. Kommentar\u003c\/em\u003e (Frankfurter Ausgabe, 1994).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47013048844476,"sku":null,"price":3000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/Bremer-Presse_Urfaust-1.jpg?v=1782803012","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/the-bremer-presse-urfaust-one-of-270-in-signed-frieda-thiersch-vellum","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}