Decree by Heinrich Julius Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg (1564-1613, accession to the throne 1589) concerning the procedure of wedding celebrations. Given Gröningen near Halberstadt December 28, 1604. No place + printer, c. 1604. 1 page. With large woodcut initial. 50.8 x 37.7 cm.

enacted on occasion of a marriage celebration turned rowdy seen with full ducal rage

“with  Our  own  eyes ”

at the ducal New Inn (in Gröningen?). The description of that followed by a regulation of 9 chapters not just describing

and what staff is needed for this. And for anyone the highest wage is fixed. Up to 2 Margroschen per bushel of wheat and one per bushel of rye for the miller and his hands for “the pains taken for milling the wedding rye and wheat”.

And for the observance of all this against anybody finally inspectors and commissioners are urged and enjoined to have

That determination for using up these broadsheets owe their extraordinary rarity and the fact now, according to the ownership, grieving, now highly satisfying the collector that “they … are preserved almost only

in  few  copies

and by chance” (Bohatta). Whereby these were usually – so here, too –not used up on the bulletin boards, but are very well preserved voucher copies. The one here with two folds and remaining fold strip as sign of its preservation within an omnibus volume for which the lower margin, needless for at least 3.5 cm, had been trimmed under supposed loss of the printed signature with the printed L(oco) S(igilli) stamp. Here thus ending with

Followed by white margin of 2 cm. – The print itself on two sheets joined seamlessly and from the front practically invisibly, each with rich though not sufficiently identifiable watermark of about 13 x 9 cm whose ornaments show characteristics of marks locally proven in the last quarter of the 16^th century. E. g. those of Briquet 1982 f. + 19539, 10541 and for a possible lion’s tail tuft elsewhere (Vosges Mountains, Brussels, Wurttemberg) 10565/67 + 10569. – Uniformly slightly toned, weak little brown spot in the first paragraph, small tear in the white upper margin of the fold backed acid-freely.

In the author though we meet

(F. Spehr in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie XI, 500 ff.).

Postulated for the episcopate Halberstadt at an age of only two years – so here, too, and still before the ducal dignity “Postulated Bishop of the Convent Halberstadt” – , he received “with his brothers a part of his education in convent house at Gröningen” whereby with the decree here the wheel comes charmingly full circle. Known for his splendid household death met him appropriately in the course of a carouse in Prague. Obviously he not remembered his warning in his edict here addressing those servants carrying messages for their marriage banqueting masters to “refrain from getting drunk”.

Not least then under this so human aspect, too, round about a

really  grand  and  unique  suspension

for which the framing-ready, acid-free decorative passepartout is included, too. And whose thematic rareness, it may be repeated, goes far beyond the general one of the broadsheet :

Since decades obliged to European statutes and proclamations as witnesses of the shaped everyday life, hundreds of these passed through here, but

for  the  first  time  now  a  marriage  decree !

That it is altogether  one  of  the  earliest  should augment your pride to own it by the i-dot highly contested by the connoisseurs.

Congratulations  beforehand !

Offer no. 28,118 / EUR  1380. / Export price EUR  1311. (c. US$ 2116.) + shipping

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