Dactyliothec das ist Sammlung geschnittener Steine der Alten aus denen vornehmsten Museis in Europa, zum Nutzen der schonen Kúnste und Kúnstler / in zwey Tausend Abdrúcken ediret von Phil. Don. Lippert. Ann. M DCCLXVII
The engraved title-plate (v. 1) is signed as designed and drawn by Lippert and engraved by Bernigeroth, and dated 1764; the leaf of plates following p. xxxviii (v. 1) is signed as drawn by Lippert and engraved by B. Hübner. The headpiece on p. [iii] (v. 1) is signed as designed and drawn by Lippert and engraved by Bernigeroth, and dated 1763; the decorations on pages xliv, 49, 99, 133, 235 and 313 (v. 1) are signed by J.M. Stock after Lippert. The tailpiece on p. 344 [v. 1] is signed as engraved by Bernigeroth. The tailpiece on p. 224 (v. 2) is signed as engraved by C.F. Boetius. Other decorations in both volumes are unsigned.
The printers' name is given in the colophon of Volume 2, p. 307: 'Leipzig, aus der Druckerey Bernhard Christoph Breitkopfs und Sohns, 1767.'
References
On Lippert's Dactyliotheca see: “A treasure, a schoolmaster, a pass-time” Dactyliothecae in the 18th and 19th centuries and their function as teaching aids in schools and universities / Valentin Kockel. In: Engraved Gems. From Antiquity to the present / B. J. L. van den Bercken & V.C.P. Baan (eds.) Papers on Archaeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities, Vol. 14. 2017.
On gem-collecting see: D. Scarisbrick, 'English collectors of engraved gems', in Classical gems ... in the Fitzwilliam Museum, ed. M. Henig (1994), p. xiii-xxiii; A. Bernhard-Walcher, 'Zur Geschichte der Gemmensammlung', in Die antiken Gemmen des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien, III (1991), p. 28-38; J. Kagan and O. Neverov, 'Lorenz Natter's Museum Britannicum: gem collecting in mid-eighteenth-century England', in Apollo, CXX (1984), p. 114-21, 162-9; P. Zazoff, Gemmensammler und Gemmenforscher (1983), p. 153-61; C. Gasparri, 'Gemme antiche in età neoclassica', in Prospettiva, VIII (1977), p. 25-35; G. Heres, 'Daktyliotheken der Goethezeit', in Forsch. & Ber.: Staatl. Mus. Berlin, XIII (1971), p. 59-74; S. Reinach, Pierres gravées des collections ... (1895).
Summary Note
Our title is given in the engraved title-plate. The printed titles read: (Volume I) 'Dactyliothec Erstes Mythologisches Tausend'; (Volume II) 'Dactyliothec Zweytes Historisches Tausend'. Although the engraved title-plate has text in Roman lettering, the rest of the text is in German black-letter.
In 1753 Lippert conceived of the idea of organising a collection of 1000 impressions of antique engraved gems into a systematic order and selling them with a printed catalogue. The impressions being housed in containers that looked like folio books, containing 20 drawers. Lippert published the first edition of <i>Dactyliotheca Universalis signorum exemplis nitidis redditae</i> in Leipzig in 1755-1762. It comprised three volumes in book form, each containing twenty drawers of one thousand gem casts per volume, chosen from the prominent collections of the day in Europe. It was accompanied by a summary printed catalogue in Latin.
Dactyliothecae were widely used in the study of antique iconography and art in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Whilst the text volumes were initially in Latin, the 3rd edition was accompanied by a detailed printed catalogue in German, with the intention of making it more accessible to artists and others who did not possess a knowledge of Latin. The two accompanying cases, designed to look like books, in which the gems are housed are also shelved in the RA Library. With red morocco spine-labels lettered 'Phillipp Daniel Lipperts. Dactyliothec. Mythologische Tavsend. (Historisches Tausend)'.
Lippert's book is one of several eighteenth-century studies of ancient gems; which were collected both as historical sources and as works of art.
Mythology, Greek - Mythology, Roman - Greece - Rome - History
Finger rings, Greek - Finger rings, Roman - Gems, Greek - Gems, Roman - Europe - History
Collections - Europe - 18th century
Dactyliotheca - Dactyliothecae
Catalogues - Germany - 18th century
Pictorial works - Germany - 18th century