Betrugs-Lexicon, Worinnen die Meisten Betrugereyen in allen Standen..
Uncensored First Edition of Honn's Betrugs-Lexicon (1721): A Landmark Enlightenment Taxonomy of Fraud and Social Deception Honn, Georg Paul. Betrugs-Lexicon: Worinnen die Meisten Betrugereyen in Allen Standen, Nebst denen Darwider guten Theils Dienenden Mitteln. Coburg: Verlegts Paul Gunther Pfotenhauer, 1721. [xvi], 458, [6] pp. Collates complete. Octavo (6-1/2" x 3-3/4"). Contemporary three-quarter vellum over marbled boards, early manuscript spine title. Binding slightly cocked; rubbing and wear to boards and extremities, corners bumped, spine ends worn; portions of marbled paper lacking, spine darkened. Hinges cracked but firm. Front free endpaper lacking, rear free endpaper partially detached. Title printed in red and black. Moderate toning, minor worming to foot of text block, light soiling to title page. Early ink shelf-mark ("767") to front pastedown; later pencil annotations to several leaves. $1,750. * First and only uncensored edition. A remarkable and often startling early eighteenth-century compendium of frauds, impostures, and social deceptions, arranged alphabetically and spanning every social rank-from itinerant tricksters to clerics and professionals. Both analytical and satirical, the work stands at the intersection of moral theology, emerging criminological thought, and Enlightenment social criticism. The entries on "Monch" and "Nonne," among others, proved sufficiently provocative to attract official objection; they were altered or suppressed in subsequent printings. The 1721 edition therefore preserves the text in its original, unexpurgated state and is decisively the most desirable issue. A scarce and candid document of early modern European attitudes toward fraud, social order, and institutional hypocrisy. The book passed through seven editions, concluding in 1761, attesting to its contemporary popularity and influence. Early editions are seldom encountered in commerce. OCLC records only four copies of the first edition outside continental Europe (Columbia University, University of Alberta, Yale University, Harvard Law School). VD18 10178082-008.
Price: $1,750.00
Book number 70776