Inside the book

The charm of this little book begins with its covers: the original illustrated paper boards are ornamented with a zodiacal border and pictorially printed with skaters and the snow-bringing North Wind on the front, and King Winter on the rear. The engraved frontispiece shows Nuremberg's famous skating ground at the Dutzendteich, with a large crowd of people frolicking on the ice. The other five engravings in the book, by Adam Klein, depict different forms of skates and figures of ice skating, while the accompanying text explains them in considerable detail. The first part, pp. 1-78, forms a graded course of instruction: encouragement by word and example; the choice and fastening of skates; the skater's dress; laying out the rink; the first attempt on the ice; and the four elementary movements (straight running, crossing over, the outside-edge curve, and the turn) followed by stance and carriage, group figures, the ice-sledge, precautions, and a concluding note on the literature of the sport. The appendix, beginning on p. 79, gathers poems, letters, essays, and literary quotations relating to ice skating, chiefly by Klopstock, Goethe, Herder, and Platen, including Goethe's "Die Eisbahn" ("The Ice Rink"). Throughout, the text contains numerous remarks on races, speed records, ice festivals, Parisian novelties, and other curiosities of contemporary skating.