Figure 1.--Here we see the title page. It is difficult to make out the authors..

This is a major source on the German royal family. This book was published in Munich in 1882. It is the FŸrstenausgabe (Royal Edition) of "Die Hohenzollern und das Deutsche Vaterland" ("The Hohenzollerns and the German Fatherland"). The book is composed of two volumes. The first volume contains books one through four, covering the dates 1061 through 1786, the end of the reign of Frederick the Great. The second volume (copy number 146 of 200 copies), containing books five and six, continues into the late 1800s and the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm I. There is an illustration on almost every page. These include dozens of highly detailed and wonderfully executed full-page engravings s), each protected by a tissue overlay. There are various supplemental inserts bound into the book, such as printed facsimiles of handwritten documents, accompanied by a typeset version for improved readability. Some of these are letters. One facsimile (see photo) presents the beginning and the conclusion of the handwritten Testament (Will) of Frederick the Great, in French; the tissue overlay is imprinted with both a typeset version of the French text and a translation into German. There are several charts of the family tree, four of which are printed on single folded sheets more than 26 inches (66 cm.) wide, the size of two full pages side by side (see extra-wide photo). The front cover features metalwork reliefs of what we presume to be the Hohenzollern family crest and profiles of four of the Hohenzollerns. The wings of the eagle on the crest are missing and so is one of the four red glass beads at the corners of the cover. Copies of "Die Hohenzollern und das Deutsche Vaterland" were given to members of the aristocracy.

Created: 6:39 AM 1/30/2005
Last updated: 6:39 AM 1/30/2005