Liefländische historia [...] LM-69

Author: Kelch Kristian, 1657 - 1710

Title: Liefländische historia, oder kurtze Beschreibung der denckwürdigsten Kriegs- und Friedensgeschichte Esth- Lief- und Lettlandes; vornehmlich in sich begreiffend einem kurtzen Bericht von den Nahmen, Eintheilung, und Beschaffenheit der Provintz Liefland, von deroselben ältesten Einwohnern, der Ehsten und Letten Ursprung, Heydenthum und erster Bezwingung: Von des Schwerd-Brüder und Marianischen Teutschen Ritterordens Anfang, Regierung und Untergang: Von denen zwischen Schweden, Dennemarck, Polen und Moscau etc. des Landes wegen, geführten langwierigen Kriegen, und viel andern biss auffs 1690 Jahr, vorgelauffenen denckwürdigen Dingen mehr; Theils aus Ein-und Ausländischen Geschicht-schreibern, theil aus glaubwürdigen, noch ungedruckten Urkunden, und selbst-eigener Erfahrung zusammen getragen, und in fünff Büchern abgefasset, von Christiano Kelchen, Pastore zu St. Johannis in Jerwen, im Hertzogthum Esthland.

Title in English:The History of Livonia, or a Brief Description of the Most Memorable Stories of War and Peace in Livonia, Estonia, and Latvia; with a Short Account of Names, Parts, and Traits of Livonian Provinces, of its Oldest Inhabitants, the Origin of Estonians and Latvians, of Paganism and the First Conquest; of the Beginning, Reign, and End of the Livonian Order and the Order of Brothers of Saint Mary; of the Harsh Wars for This Land Between Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Muscovy etc. and Many Other Memorable Events That Took Place Until 1690; Part of Which Comes from the Writings of Local and Foreign Historians and Another Part from Reliable Manuscripts and the Author’s Experience, Composed and Written in Five Books by Christian Kelch - Pastor of Saint Johann in Jerwen of the Duchy of Estonia. 

Revall [Tallinn]: verlegts Johann Mehner; Rudolphstadt: druckts Heinrich Urban, 1695.

Format: 4:0. Grav. extra titel,+ (13),+ (blank),+ 639 s.

Binding: slightly frayed contemporary leather binding, blind embossed spine with four raised bonding and worn beige title tag, weakly stained sections.

Ex libris: from the library at Ericsberg. With the book plate of Carl Jedvard Bonde.The famous Ericsberg’s Castle library was amased in the period 1843-1913 by two generations of the baronial Bonde family, and became “one of the biggest and most valuable individual collections in Sweden”. (Carlander, Svenska bibliotek och exlibris, 1896-1904).

Reference: Nordisk historia ur Ericsbergs bibliotek III. Sormaktstid. (Mats Petersson & Mathias Stenvall) – Stockholm: Centralantikvariatet, Katalog 67, No210, p. 97.

The most important work of the German born Estonian historian Christian Kelch (1657–1710), The History of Livonia covers the period from the foundation of the Order of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in the beginning of the 13th century to 1690. Livonia, a historical region in the territory of modern Latvia and Estonia, is closely related to Lithuania: the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (or the Duchy of Courland) was a vassal of Lithuania in 1561–1795 (and Poland after the Union of Lublin 1569). The Duchy of Uždauguvis (also called Duchy of Inflanty or Livonia) was an autonomous province of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1566, and became part of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Union of Lublin. 

Reference: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 509.

Published: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 508-509.