Gotthard Oswald Marbach
Das Nibelungen Lied
Otto and Georg Wigand,Leipzig, 1840
Parchment bound, 24x32x3.5cm.
The Nibelungenlied is an epic poem based on pre-Christian elements, written in middle High German, which became enormously popular in the nineteenth century, with the rise of cultural nationalism and the interest in the medieval period fostered by Romanticism in Germany.
Gotthard Oswald Marbach (1810-1890) was a poet, playwright and mathematics teacher from Leipzig, who was married to Rosalie Wagner, sister of the famous composer, Richard Wagner.
The illustrations, in a Romantic style are by Eduard Bendemann (1811-1889), at the time Professor of Painting at the Dresden Fine Art Academy, and Julius Hübner (1806-1882), also a professor in Dresden. The two later went on to dominate a school of historical painting that developed in Düsseldorf in the 1850s.
The type is in a Schwabacher style, framed in self-consciously medieval style borders, matched by the parchment style binding.
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