
BOOKS IN FRENCH
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“Tell Us About MEXICO, Where
MAXIMILIAN Now Lives”
De Bussierre, Marie Théodore Renouard, vicomte de. L'empire mexicain histoire des toltèques des chichimeques des aztèques et de la conquete espagnole. Paris: Henri Plon, 1863. Small 8vo. [2] ff., 427 pp.
[SOLD]

Written during the French intervention and clearly aimed at the French reading public who wanted to know more about the land that had attracted Emperor Maximilian. It is a history of Mexico from pre-Columbian times through the Mexican War, with attention paid to the Toltecs and the Aztecs and their arts, sciences, society, and religion.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The latter part of the book offers a very brief recounting of Javier Mina, the War for Texas independence, and the U.S. intervention in the 1840s and consequent loss of California, New Mexico, etc. to the U.S.
Provenance: From the collection of Alberto Pareño, with his initials at the base of the spine.
Sabin 9561; Palau 37698; Bernal 4295. 20th-century red cloth, with original green printed wrappers bound in. Occasional light foxing. (21371)
Delille, Jacques. Les jardins, poëme...nouvelle édition, considérablement augmentée. Paris: Chez Levrault (pr. by P. Didot l’aîné), 1801. 12mo (13.5 cm, 5.25"). [6], xxxv, [1], 216 pp.; 4 plts.
$250.00

Subtitled “L’art d’embellir les paysages,” this gardening-themed poem includes praise of the virtues of the relaxed, relatively “natural” jardin anglais. Les jardins, Delille’s most successful work, was originally published in 1782 with many subsequent editions appearing both in French and English; the present example is a nicely bound copy of the expanded version, illustrated with four engraved plates by Monciau after Benoît-Louis Prevost and other artists.
Binding: Contemporary treed calf. Spine with gilt-stamped red leather title label, gilt-stamped compartment lines, and floral devices within compartments.
Brunet, II, 576. Binding somewhat rubbed and starting to crack over joints, though very firm; some onetime water exposure visible on front cover (a not entirely unattractive effect). Pages with a bit of very minor spotting, and some offsetting from plates.
An attractive copy of a pretty book.

A Leading Light of
17th-Century
French Poetry
An Elegant Retrospective Edition
Deshoulières, Antoinette. Poésies de Madame Deshoulières. Paris: Chez Lemoine (pr. by J.L. Bellemain), 1826. 16mo (10.4 cm, 4.1"). viii, [5]–156 pp.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargement.
Sole edition thus, a petite rendition from the “Bibliothèque en Miniature” series: Miscellaneous poems by the socialite, philosopher, and belle-lettrist once acclaimed as the French Calliope.
Binding: Contemporary green calf framed in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations, board edges with gilt rolls at corners. All edges marbled. Red silk bookmark present and intact.
Binding as above, corners bumped, spine sunned (not unattractively), joints and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Pages clean. An appealing
little collection of highlights from a once-adored salonnière. (29943)

ABCs around the WORLD Illustrated
Diderot, Denis. Caractères et alphabets de langues mortes et vivantes (Extracted from the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers). [Paris: ca. 1750–72]. Folio (30.5 cm, 12"). 24 double-p. plts. (of 25).
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Eye pleasing and mind instructive, this volume contains
24
double-spread engraved plates of alphabets for various languages.
They were engraved for the article on alphabets in the Diderot Encyclopédie,
a massive 20-year project aiming to encompass every branch of human knowledge
that was a landmark of Enlightenment-era philosophy, attacking superstition
while promoting science, rationality, and scholarship. Many of the volumes were
supplemented with illustrations, such as the plates present here, designed to
facilitate comparing and contrasting the alphabets and basic writing conventions
of “dead and living” languages.
Languages charted in these tables include “Tartares Mouantcheoux,”
Tamoul, Telongou, Persian (ancient and modern), Armenian, Russian (ancient
and modern), Coptic, Hebrew, etc., with the engraving done by master artisan
Robert Bénard (fl. 1750–85).
Half green calf with green marbled paper–covered sides,
spine with gilt-stamped title; slight wear to corners and spine extremities.
Lacking one plate (#25); another with a small hole outside image and a circlet
of darkening around that, from a cigarette ash (#6). Light soiling and spots,
a corner or two a little chipped or bent; a handsome gathering. (24823)
Digby, Kenelm. Discovrs svr la vegetation des plantes, fait par le Cheualier Digby, le 23. Ianuier 1660, en presence de Messieurs de l’Academie Royale d’Angleterre.... Paris: Chez la veuve Moet, 1667. 12mo (15. 6 cm, 6.2"). ã8A–G6H4 (-H4, blank); [16], 89, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1500.00


First edition of this translation of Sir Kenelm Digby’s Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants, originally published in 1661 and here, in its French guise, dedicated to the Dauphin. Digby’s best known work of natural history, the Discourse provides the first known documentation of the importance of “vital air” (i.e., oxygen) to plant life; the work also discusses spagyrical analysis, a procedure which the author helped to popularize and which has recently (and controversially) been put to use in examining crop circles.
Rare. Searches via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only five copies worldwide: Two in the U.S. (both at same university!) and three in France.
Duveen D494. Recent calf with covers framed in single gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Leaves with some dustsoiling and dampstaining; now heavily sized, many with margins repaired and a few with stray pencil marks. Lacks final blank leaf (only). In fact, a rather nice copy of a very uncommon item.

Early Biography of Palafox
Dinouart, Joseph-Antoine-Toussaint. Vie du vénérable Dom Jean de Palafox, evêque d'Angélopolis, & ensuite evêque d'Osme, dédiée a Sa Majeté Catholique. Cologne: Nyon, 1767. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). Frontis., iv, lvi, 576 pp.; 3 plts.
$300.00
First edition: Life of the celebrated yet controversial viceroy and reformer Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. Abbé Dinouart consulted an unpublished biography begun by the Jesuit Pierre Champion (and halted due to Champion's “franchise,” according to Barbier) to produce this important account of Palafox's life, accomplishments, and disputes with the Jesuits. Dinouart's Vie includes the text (in French translation) of Palafox's letters to the king of Spain and to Pope Innocent X on behalf of the cruelly treated Mexican Indians, as well as the text of the petition by Charles III of Spain to the Pope, requesting that Palafox be considered for canonization.
Click the images for enlargements.
The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates done by Louis le Grand after designs by Gravelot.
Sabin 20201; Palau 73986; LeClerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 3180; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 1003–04. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners, joints, and spine extremities rubbed, spine with two pinpoint holes and surface cracks to leather. Front free endpaper partially separated, with pencilled annotation on verso; inner margins of one plate and opposing page with small area of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled in blue. An attractive copy. (25799)
Norman
ConquestS
Duchesne, André. Historiae Normannorum scriptores antiqui, res ab illis per Galliam, Angliam, Apuliam, Capuae principatum, Siciliam, & Orientem gestas explicantes ... Lutetiae Parisiorum: [colophon: Apud Robertum Foüet, Nicolaum Buon, Sebastianum Cramoisy], 1619. Folio (35 cm, 13.6"). [7] ff., 1104, [16 (index & colophon)] pp. (pagination occasionally erratic).
$1800.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition: History of the Normans and their conquests in Europe,
compiled by a prominent French historian and geographer. The title-page is printed
in red and black, and bears an engraved printer's device. Although the preface
describes a planned publication of three volumes altogether, only this first
volume was ever printed; it incorporates Duchesne's editions of Orderic Vitalis's
Historia ecclesiastica, William of Poitiers's Gesta Guilelmi II.
ducis Normannorum, and a number of other now-scarce early texts and sources.
This
is in Latin, not French, but we felt it should be listed here!
Brunet, II, 856; Graesse 440. Period-style calf framed in blind,
spine with raised bands and otherwise very plain– no label. Title-page
with faint early inked inscriptions. Colophon with margins repaired, one repair
at inner margin just touching a letter of text. Waterstaining to inner portions
and lower outer corners of much of volume (not affecting title-page or preface,
and generally faint); some pages browned. Numerous instances of early inked
marginalia and underlining. (20816)
Duhamel
du Monceau, [Henry Louis]. Art de faire les tapis, façon de Turquie,
connus sous le nom de tapis de la Savonnerie. [Paris: De l’imprimerie de
L.F. Delatour], 1766. Folio (46 cm, 18"). [1] f., 25, [1 (blank)] pp.; 4 plts.
$350.00
First edition of this stand-alone entry from the Description
des arts et métiers, faites ou approuvées par Messieurs de l’Académie
des sciences de Paris, a series of publications on French arts and trades
sponsored by the Académie Royale des Sciences. Based on the papers of
Jacques Noinville, former director of the famed Savonnerie carpet factory, the
work describes the history and techniques of making Oriental-style rugs; the
plates depict workers using looms and devices resembling spinning wheels, as
well as individual pieces of equipment and a sample floral design.
19th-century quarter sheep over paper-covered boards, worn and
abraded with small discolorations; spine leather chipped, with remnants of
gilt-stamped leather title label. Edges untrimmed. Some offsetting and a very
few spots to pages; small area of worm damage in upper margins.
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The Andes to
ANTARCTICA 78 Plates / 5 Maps
Famin,
César, et al. L'univers, ou histoire et description
de tous les peuples. Amérique méridionale, iles diverses de l'océan
et régions circompolaires. Chili, Paraguay, Uruguay, Buenos-Ayres...Patagonie,
Terre-du-Feu et Archipel des Malouines...iles diverses des trois océans
et régions circompolaires. Paris: Firmin Didot Frères, 1840. 8vo
(21.5 cm, 8.4"). [4], 96, 64, 91, [1], 328 pp.; 76 plts., 5 fold. maps, 2 single-f.
maps.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Five uncommon works on South America, various islands of the Atlantic, and the polar regions, composing part of a lengthy series of geographical studies: Sabin identifies this as vol. XXV of L'univers. The ambitious pieces describe not only the physical geography of the territories covered, but also the religions, customs, costumes, and more of their native peoples. Chili was written by César Famin, Patagonie by Frédéric Lacroix, and Iles diverses by Lacroix and Rory de Saint-Vincent; all are indexed. Three of the oversized, folding maps are by Thomas Duvotenay, while the other two are signed by Jenotte. Two more single-leaf maps are unattributed. The impressive array of plates depicts dress, dwellings, rituals, scenic vistas, and flora and fauna (including a jaguar, cougar, coati, and tapir for Paraguay, and seaweed and jellyfish for the islands).
Palau 86546; Sabin 23767. Contemporary quarter sheep over marbled paper sides, modestly gilt; boards lightly worn, leather more so. Lacking five maps according to Palau, although at least one map is present for each section in this volume; Sabin cites 88 plates total without differentiating between plates and maps. One leaf removed at front and one at back. Lines of waterstaining, generally faint but present throughout; some plates with light spots of foxing, occasionally having offset onto surrounding leaves. Priced reflecting absent leaves. (1797)
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Fleury, Claude. Moeurs des Israélites et des Chrétiens ... nouvelle édition. Lyon: J. Ayné, 1808. 12mo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). [6], 397, [3] pp.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon edition of a pair of treatises on Jewish and Christian
customs of antiquity, originally published as two companion works in 1681 and
1682. Fleury, a lawyer turned theologian who tutored the sons of Louis XIV,
is best known for his highly successful and oft-reprinted Histoire ecclésiastique;
Brunet notes that the present items are “deux excellents ouvrages.”
Brunet, II, 1291 (for an 1810 ed. only, not citing this ed.);
Graesse, 596 (for an 1810 ed. only, not citing this ed). Contemporary speckled
calf, rebacked in calf preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label,
spine with gilt-dotted raised bands and gilt-stamped date; corners bumped,
edges rubbed and with a few small dents, old leather abraded with some old
cracking. Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate; front pastedown
and free endpaper with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Pages
faintly age-toned, else clean.
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