Altorfii Noricorum (Nürnberg), Iod. G. Kohlesius, 1723. Small 4to (19.0 x 16.2 cm). Title page, [ii], 100 pp.; one engraved map of the Nürenberg area and one peculiar engraving showing a crossbowman on a beehive with two coats-of-arms: one of Crenan, Leidlarius, Eschanson and Butigul, and one engraved initial letter. Wonderful medieval-style contemporary parchment binding decorated with blind-tooled roller stamp decoration of hunting scenes including deer, birds and lions. Edges red.

A most curious and probably rare book, being a thesis on apiculture and forestry containing 24 chapters and appendices written in Latin. These are followed by a " Mantissa documentorum quae ad historiam Butigulariorum item et Zeidelariorum atque Forestariorum Norimbergensium, magis illustrandam, facere possunt" - a series of documents numbered I-XVIIII [SIC] being letters in Latin and, later, High German, with Latin comments. These deal mainly with legal matters on forestry and the use of woods (known as "Wald-Ordnung"), and apiculture rights (so-called "Hönig-Geld", or "honey money") in the area around Nürnberg in southern Germany. Christian Gottlieb Schwarz (1675-1751) was a philosophy and history professor in Altdorf; Johann Hieronymus Braun was one of his students. The binding is highly unusual, and a work of art in itself. A very good, clean copy.