Musaeum Gottwaldianum ze zbiorów Biblioteki Politechniki Gdańskiej i wydawnicze losy dzieła Christophorusa Gottwaldta (1636–1700) w XVIII w.

Abstrakt

Readers did not become acquainted with the work of Christophorus Gottwaldt (1636–1700), a physician from Gdańsk, an anatomist, collector of natural objects, as well as a talented draughtsman and etcher, during the author’s life. His sudden death interrupted the realization of his publishing projects. However, widowed Konstantia Gottwaldt (?‒?) took care of publicizing the scientific work of her husband. In 1713‒16 (17?), vidua Gottwaldt led up to publishing the album with no text in a very limited edition, consisting of natural history illustrations prepared by Ch. Gottwaldt and his co‑worker, monogrammist SD/S.D:s, who could be identical with the etcher Samuel Donnet (active in Gdańsk cir. 1699–1734). The album is known as Museaum Gottwaldianum and one of the very few copies of this unique edition is kept at the Library of the Gdańsk University of Technology. The manuscripts, copper plates, and illustrations of Ch. Gottwaldt were passed on to the naturalist Johann Philipp Breyne (1680‒1764), who was to publish the scientific legacy of the anatomist with his own comments. Breyne did not keep his promises and after his death and sale of the Bibliotheca Breyniana (auctions over 1765–66), Gottwaldt’s manuscripts and copper plates went to the publisher Gabriel Nicolaus Raspe (1712–85) from Nurnberg. In 1781–82, Raspe published three editions with Ch. Gottwaldt’s anatomical treatises, translated from Latin to German, and the natural history illustrations, printed from the original 17th‑century copper plates.