Giovane di Girasole, Juliane Franziska, Herzogin von
Mudersbach (near Würzburg) 1766 – 1805 Ofen (Budapest)

Gesammelte Schriften der Frau Herzoginn Julie von Giovane gebornen Reichsfreyinn von Mudersbach, Sternkreuz-Ordensdame, Ehrenmitgliedes der k. Akademie der schönen Wissenschaften, Künste und Alterthümer zu Stockholm [edited by Joseph Edlen von Retzer].

Vienna, Ignaz Alberti, 1793

octavo (195 × 110 mm), in four parts (separately paginated, each sub-title with imprint of Ignaz Alberti and date 1793), signed π⁴ A–C⁸, ²A–C⁸ (–C⁸, cancelled), ³A–D⁸ E⁴, ²π⁸ and paginated (8) 1–48, 1–45 (1), 1–71 (1), 1–16.

contents title as transcribed above (π1), editor’s preface (π2–3), table of contents (π4); Die vier Weltalter. Nach dem Ovid in vier Idyllen followed by ‘Auf die Aufhebung der Leibeigenschaft in Böhmen’ (A1–C8); Abhandlung über die Frage: Welche dauerhafte Mittel gibt es, die Menschen ohne äusserliche Gewalt zum Guten zu führen? (²A1–C7); Lettres sur l’ éducation des princesses … Troisième édition, revue et corrigée (³A1–E4); Lettera di una dama sul codice delle leggi di S. Leucio indirizzata al Signor D. Giuseppe Vairo (²π1–8).

paper thick wove paper, watermark Graeffer

provenance Georg Karl (Ignaz Johann Nepomuk) von Fechenbach zu Laudenbach (1749–1808), Fürstbischof von Würzburg 1795–1802, his engraved armorial exlibris G.C. v. Fechenbach on paste-down; inventory/shelfmarks on endleaves Nr. 1036 (deleted, replaced by 1025) | F.5 (B 650 on end­paper opposite, and that number on a paper spine label) — Hartung & Hartung, Auktion 113 (‘Dabei Teil ii der Bibliothek des fränkischen Adelsgeschlechts von Fechenbach’), Munich, 10 May 2006, lot 2120

In fine state of preservation.

bound in contemporary mottled calf, gilt frame on covers, the flat spine divided into compartments by repetition of a ‘Greek key’ roll, and further ornamented by an oval floral, tool, all edges gilt.

A collected edition of prose works of ‘die vergessene Dichterin’, Juliane Giovane (formerly Freiin von Mudersbach), elegantly printed in the leading printing-house of Vienna.¹

The earliest works in the collection are juvenilia: ‘Die vier Weltalter, nach dem Ovid, in vier Idyllen’, dedicated at Würzburg, 4 October 1784 to Salomon Gessner (whose pastoral prose Idyllen, published 1756–1772, they imitate), previously printed at Vienna by Joseph Stahel in 1784; ‘Auf die Aufhebung der Leibebeigenschaft in Böhmen, eine Idylle’, a re­working of a piece contributed to the novelist Sophie von La Roche’s weekly publication, Pomona für Teutschlands Töchter, in 1783 (volume i, Heft viii, pp.765–769); and a moral work opposing torture and capital punishment, ‘Abhandlung über die frage: Welche dauer­haft Mittel gibt es, die Menschen ohne aüsserliche Gewalt zum Guten zu führen?’, printed anonymously (at Würzburg or Vienna?) in 1785. The original editions of these works are of greatest rarity.²

In 1785, Juliane married Duke Giovene di Girasole, and settled in Naples, where she held positions at the court of Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, wife of King Ferdinand iv of Naples, was painted by Angelika Kauffmann,³ and entertained among others Johann Gottfried Herder and (on 2 June 1787) Goethe.⁴ Another work in the collection was written during this period: ‘Lettera di una donna sul codice delle leggi di S. Lencio indirizzata’, addressed to Giuseppe Vairo, professor of chemistry and physician at the Neapolitan court, and first printed at Naples by Pietro Perger in 1790.⁵

In 1790, Juliane accompanied Maria Carolina to Vienna, where the latest work in the col­lection, her ‘Lettres sur l’éducation des princesses’ (five letters, all headed ‘[…] Genève’), was first printed (at the press of Joseph Stahel) in 1791. She continued to enjoy positions at court – until a rift with Maria Carolina in 1800, that required her to seek protection in Budapest – and occupied herself with writing and scholarship: in 1794 she was elected to the Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (no other woman was to be elected for 106 years), in 1797 she published a book on the education provided by a grand Tour, dedicated to her son Carlo Francesco (1787–1849),⁶ and in 1802 one of her ‘idylls’ was printed by Bodoni.⁷

Three copies of our edition are located in North American libraries

● Ithaca, Cornell University, PT1887.G23 1793 ● Palo Alto, Stanford University, PT1887 .G25 1793 ● Storrs, University of Connecticut Libraries, A5067

and eight or nine copies can be traced in European libraries

● Berlin, Staatsbibliothek-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ak 1901 (two parts only) ● Coburg, Landes­bibliothek, W/II 12/31 ● Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, 8 MS 7565 ● Leeds, Brotherton Library, G–1 GIO ● Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Opp. 479 (reportedly ‘Ver­lust’) ● Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 22668–B. Alt Mag ● Vienna, Universitätsbib­liothek, I 106440 ● Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, 3720 ● Würzburg, Universitäts­bibliothek, Misc. 0.26 (lacking ‘Lettres sur l’éducation des princesses’)

references J.G. Meusel and G.C. Hamberger, Das gelehrte Teutschland (Lemgo 1796), ii, p.567 (this edition; see also ix p.427, xi p.271, xii p.332); Carl Wilhelm von Schindel, Die deutschen Schrift­stellerin des neunzehten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1823–1825), i, p.162; Karl Goedeke, Grundrisz zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen (Dresden 1884–1891), v, p.450, no.14/5 and vi, pp.542–543, no.19/4; Deutsches Literatur-Lexikon (Bern & Munich 1978), vi, col.344; Helga Gallas and Anita Runge, Romane und Erzählungen deutscher Schriftstellerinnen um 1800 (Stuttgart & Weimar 1983), p.63; cf. Wolfgang Griep and Annegret Pelz, Frauen reisen. Ein bibliographisches Verzeichnis deutschsprachiger Frauenreisen 1700 bis 1810 (Bremen 1995), pp.125–126, nos. 255–256 (other works)