Extremely rare copy of the second edition of an already very rare work presenting the geography and anthropology of the foreign world in the form of a story told in 24 winter evenings by a father to his children. It is divided into 24 chapters, each describing the inhabitants of a specific region in Africa, the Americas, Australia, Asia and Europe, each with a hand-coloured illustration. The equally rare first edition published by Bieling in Nürnberg in 1810, contains the plates from Johann Sigmund Stoy, Bilder-Akademie für die Jugend (1784), while the illustrations in present anonymous edition are printed from new plates, implying a possible pirated edition.
It treats the Khoikhoi, the inhabitants of Guinea, the Caribbean, Florida and Mexico, the Eskimos, the inhabitants of Greenland and Patagonia, the "Pescherans" from Tierra del Fuego, the inhabitants of New Zealand, the Australian aboriginies (called "New Hollanders"), the inhabitants of Java and Amboina & Makassar, the Moguls in India, the inhabitants of Bukhara and China, the Kalmyks, Mongols and Buryatians, the inhabitants of Tunguska and Kamchatka, the Ostyaks, the Samoyedic peoples and the Laplanders. Although published as a complete work by itself, it was so successful that Bieling published a companion volume covering different regions in 1811: Schilderung der Vornehmsten Völker.
The title-page mentions the work is written by the author of Unterhaltende Erzählungen für das erste Kindesalter (1809), apparently the same anonymous author who also wrote Julius merkwürdige Abentheuer (1813-1817) and Das goldene Buch für Kinder (1811), all published by Bieling in Nürnberg.
The boards show very minor signs of wear, the title-page shows traces of earlier endleaves, some very minor occasional spotting. Otherwise in very good condition. An extremely rare copy of an early 19th-century German children's book teaching geography and anthropology. WorldCat 1082152367 (1 copy, Universität Frankfurt); cf. GVK (2 copies of the first edition); Wegehaupt 1154 (first edition, lacking title-page); not in Lipperheide; Sabin etc.