Vögelin, Salomon
Geschichte der Wasserkirche und der Stadtbibliothek in Zürich.
Zürich, Orell Füssli und Comp. 1848.
Full Description
4to. (2) + 136pp, engraved aquatint frontispiece, (6) engraved aquatint plates. Mid nineteenth century boards, with original printed paper front wrapper mounted on upper cover. The Donaueschingen copy, with nineteenth century Donaueschingen ownership stamp on title leaf.
Scarce scholarly monograph on the late 15th century Wasserkirche in Zürich, converted to house Zürich’s Stadtbibliothek from 1634 onwards. Its text deals with the history of the building and of the city library (which remained in the building until 1917), while the attractive aquatint plates show the external and internal appearance of the Wasserkirche at various dates. In the eighteenth century elaborate carved wooden galleries were installed in tiers round the interior for the benefit of library users (as shown on two of the plates), but these, alas, have since been removed in an act of twentieth-century civic vandalism.