Johann Daniel SCHUMACHER. 1690-1761

Palaty Sanktpeterburgskoi nauyk Biblioteki i Kunstkamery kotoryjh predstavleny plany, fasady i profili. [Chambers of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences Library and Gallery showing Plan, Facades and Profiles]. St. Petersburg, at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1741

In-plano, 510x690 mm, unbound sheets; a leaf of text in German \'Die Kayserliche Academie der Wissenschaften mit ihren Departements\', 11 copper plates, numbered II-XII, one folded. Captions of plates in Russian, German, French and Latin. Fine copy.

First edition. A rare and important collection of plates illustrating the Kunstkamera and the Library of the St. Petersburg Museum, before the fire of 1747. The beautiful plates engraved by C.A. Wortmann, I.A. Sokolov, A.I. Poli︠a︡kov, G.A. Kachalov after J.J. Schumacher and G. Bon. Schumacher’s book was published within a few weeks of the drammatic change of the government in which Elizabet Petrovna seized power from Anna, regent of Russia during the infancy of her son Ivan VI. The Frontispiece, the title page, the dedication to the Empress and the first plate are missing from this copy. Kunstkamera: “Schumacher’s contract dated January 1, 1724, he was obliged to “govern the library and kunst-kammer and keep everything in good order, both in the library and kunst-kammer, and establish catalogues of books in the library and of all sorts of naturalia and artificialia staying in the kunst-kammer.” Since that time, Schumacher, as the Secretary of the Academy of Sciences’ Chancellery, was, essentially, the only master of the Kunstkamera: he allocated finances, admitted exhibits, showed the library and the museum to important guests. His authority at the court could not be undermined by either professors’ complaints or litigation cases, or even the disastrous for the museum fire of 1747. Thanks to J.D. Schumacher’s efforts, Kunstkamera’s catalogue Musei imperialis Pepropolitani vol.1, 2 and the album of engravings Chambers of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences, the Library and the Kunstkamera (1741; 1744) were published.” Obol’ianinov 1981; Rossiiskaia Gosudarstvennaia Biblioteka 169; SK 5094; Sopikov 8040. http://www.kunstkamera.ru/en/museum/kunst_hist/6/iogann_daniel_shumaher/