I am constantly on the lookout for additions to my Rare-Book Reading Room. Figured the bibliographic preface to Schumpeter’s Economic Doctrine and Method might be a good place to check. Sure enough, the very first item mentioned there turned out to be pure gold. The good people at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz have put into the creative commons an absolutely wonderful scanned copy of the early two volume work on the history of political economy by Carl Gottlob Rössig. The Text-Bild-Ansicht option even gives us a Roman-font text side-by-side with the Gothic-font original for ease of reading (presuming of course that you can read German). The tender loving care shown in this digitalization represents a gold-standard in such matters. Granted, the touch of paper and the must smell that arouse a bibliophile are still missing. But the eye and mind will delight! Links provided below.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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“Serious interest in the history of Political Economy did not develop until the classical system decayed. Although some bibliographies had been compiled in the eighteenth century only relatively little historical work had been done. Rossig’s Versuch einer Geschichte der Oekonomie und Kameralwissenschaft [sic], 1781 should be mentioned in this connection.”
Source: From the Bibliographical Preface to Joseph Schumpeter’s Economic Doctrine and Method: An Historical Sketch (trans. R. Aris). New York: Oxford University Press, 1967, page 5.
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Rössig, Carl Gottlob. Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Ökonomie- Polizei- und Cameralwissenschaften. Deutschland. Bd.I. Leipzig, 1781.
_______________. Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Ökonomie- Polizei- und Cameralwissenschaften. Deutschland. Bd.II. Leipzig, 1782.
Repository: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
Image Source: Rössig, Carl Gottlob, Gemälde von Medardus Thoenert.