Hamburg:Bookshops
From Marteau
Hamburg tourists were surprised by the fact that the city’s booksellers resided in all the bigger churches. One had read this on the title pages of books published in Hamburg which mentioned the church where you could get the book you held in your hands. But if you visited these churches you were molested by the strange business of people at the bookstalls.
Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach gives (published posthumously in 1753) a vivid account of his first encounters with the local trade. He and his company arrive in Hamburg in the morning of 18 February 1710:
| where we arrived at nine a clock and chose a good accommodation near the city Hall in the big Kayser-Hof. We got into fresh clothes and walked through the city where we also took a look at the bookshops. One has to note this with surprise that they have all their shops in the churches — an that not without the sanctuary but inside. They are closed when the preachers deliver their sermons, yet even then you see the books depicted on the outside of the individual bookstalls where you can also read the names of the individual booksellers. I did hardly find any bound books and the raw ones were expensive and offered without the help of catalogues. What made things worse I sam some of the finest strewn around or hanging from the walls where flies and dust did their best to damage them not little to my annoyance. |
As is most of the other German cities the booksellers were not allowed to sell new books bound – the binders were a privileged trade specialising often as sellers of books they bought and bound. Booksellers in other cities would, however, have old books on their shelves and work as well as antiquarians. Hamburg’s trade focused (as London’s) on modern and books.
The throng in the churches bothered the tourist who wanted to take notes of the memorable sights. Uffenbach comparing the city’s cathedral with that of his hometown Frankfurt:
| The church is otherwise very low and lacking decoration, also quite small for a city’s central church. Everything is in any case a mess and one cannot see very much due to the crowd of people running around. As soon as you come to a standstill to take a look or note at one of the inscriptions people gather around you to see what strange things you might be doing there. It is especially difficult to find a sexton who might show you for a tip the most memorable things. You hardly know where to get through to the man with everything packed with bookstalls. |