UNZER, Johanna Charlotte.

£575 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Versuch in sittlichen und zärtlichen Gedichten. First edition of a beautifully produced work of verse, printed by the celebrated German typographer Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf."The only significant German woman writer of 'anacreontic poetry'", Johanna Charlotte Unzer (1724/25-1782) published two early books of verse: the present, a set of contemplative poems which "include illuminating autobiographical references and reflect Unzer's interest in philosophical issues and methods", and the lighter Scherzgedichten (joke or witty poetry) of 1751 (Dawson in Wilson, Schlueter, & Schlueter, unpaginated). "As poet laureate of the University of Helmstedt, she was one of the few female thinkers allowed to speak publically. Her Grundriss einer Weltweisheit für das Frauenzimmer (1751) is a survey of philosophy for female readers. She described Leibniz-Wolffian tenets, while arguing for a philosophical anthropology that was well ahead of its time... An early pioneer of environmental philosophy and a subtle critic of Christian theology, she could be characterized as a predecessor of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception. Ranking among the most innovative philosophers of the century, her male peers dismissed her" (Klemme & Kuehn, p. 809), and she was a vocal supporter of women's right to education.The publishing house Breitkopf, founded by Immanuel's father Bernhard Christoph in 1719, was Leipzig's preeminent printing firm and one of the most important publishers in Germany at th

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