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[1804 GRAMMAR, MOSCOW IMPRINT] Nemetskaya grammatika, v kotoroy ne tokmo vse chasti rechi. ili proizvedeniye slov, no i sintaksis, ili sochineniye slov, oba nadlezhashchimi primerami ob"yasneny v pol'zu rossiyskago yunoshestva, izdana byvshim uchitelem nemetskago yazyka v Moskovskom Imperatorskom universitete, gospodinom Geltergofom [i.e. German grammar, in which not only all parts of speech or the composition of words, but also syntax, or the composition of words, both explained with appropriate examples for the benefit of Russian youth, was published by a former teacher of the German language at the Moscow State University, Mr. Gelterhof]

Item #2220

5th edition, supplemented by many useful examples from the best German authors.

St. Petersburg: v tipografii Ivana Glazunova, 1804. 8, 420 pp. 20,5x12,5 cm. Original half-leather binding and endpapers are preserved, the paper on the covers with losses. Bit of the leather from the spine is missing as well, although the binding is still solid. Numerous marginalia on the first and second endpapers with a handwriting of at least 11 different persons (allegedly all students) in Russian and German, some are illegible, some are readable – the surnames on them are Pisarev, Siniagin, Robert Weber, Mikhail Manitsov. The last name is the person, who has bought the book in 1805, according to one of his notes, and was a student of ‘Moscow Academy’, the theosophical faculty [i.e. Московск.Академии студ.богословск.отд. Маницов]

All inscriptions are from the 1800s and 1810s – some are dated, the others are clearly written around the same time. The number of inscriptions and the identity of the first owner of the book are intriguing – first of all, there are no library marks of any kind to suggest that the book has been in public domain and used by different students, also it was clearly purchased by Mikhail in 1805. He calls himself a student of ‘Moscow Academy’, which is a mistake, as such at the time in Moscow there was only University and the Spiritual Academy (Dukhovnaya Akademiya) existed only in Sergiev Posad, a few hours away from Moscow. Only in 1814 the branch of that Academy was opened in Moscow, of what is now known as Moscow Spiritual Academy. It’s unlikely that Mikhail would call an academy in Sergiev Posad (which was always called Troitskaya) a Moscow based one, also as we were able to track his province of origin, because of his rare surname we found the record of his school, in 1799 he has attended the school in Dmitrov (another town a few hours away from Moscow) and as a local, would know the difference between the city and the region.
It is likely that he was a student of Moscow University after all, and has called it an academy, and the book would be either passed along or sold along for several consecutive years within the University, before maybe resting on the shelf of Robert Weber, the latest inscribee, his name is dated at 1817.

In any case, the book certainly bears a greater number of inscriptions than the usual copy from the period and would welcome further research.

In German and Russian.

The book itself is a classical German grammar, which has held 11 editions in the years 1770-1829 and was widely used in Moscow University, as it was written by Franz Hölterhof (1711-1805), an ordinary professor of Moscow University from 1763. By the time this edition came out, he had already retired and lived in Sarpeta (the German colony near Volgograd, now ceased to exist). This edition being the last lifetime edition of the grammar.

Hölterhof has lived an unusually long life for his time and had a biography to match it: he moved to the Russian Empire at the age of 24, from Nordrhein-Westfalen. He has quickly learnt Estonian and Russian and started to give private lessons in Revel. In 1747 he was accused of espionage for Prussia because he was a member of the local Lutheran community, and made his first trip to the capital, more precisely to The Peter and Paul Fortress, where he had spent 12 years imprisoned. In 1759 he was sent to exile in Kazan, where he became a teacher at the local school, taught Gavrila Derzhavin, who spoke fondly of him afterwards. In a lack of a draw, after Peter III became an Emperor, he appointed a former Hölterhof’s cellmate as his personal valet and through that connection, Hölterhof managed to become a free man and even held some minor position at the Imperial Court. After that he moved to Moscow by the invitation of professor Anodurnov, which allowed him to avoid persecution after the accession of Empress Catherine II. He taught German at the local philosophical faculty and later retired in Sarpeta, where became one of the founding personalities for the community of Volga Germans, as he was teaching Russian to the locals until his later years.

Price: $950.00