
BOOKS IN FRENCH
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Ideler, Julius Ludwig. Hermapion sive rudimenta hieroglyphicae veterum Aegyptiorum literaturae. Lipsiae: Fr. Chr. Guil. Vogelii, 1841. 4to (31 cm, 12.1"). x, 314, 75, [1], 15, [1], [77]–95, [11] pp.; 28 plts. (6 folding)
$575.00
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Uncommon sole edition of this treatise on hieroglyphics, part of the great 19th-century debate over ancient Egyptian language. The text is printed in Greek, Hebrew, and
French in addition to the predominant Latin and the hieroglyphic reproductions. 28 tipped-in plates, many of which are oversized and folded, provide illustrations of cartouches, hieroglyphs, and other characters; the text and plates were originally issued as two separate volumes, but are here bound in one.
Brunet, II, 402. Recent black moiré cloth, covers framed with blind roll; spine with gilt-stamped leather title, author, and publication labels. Title-page with early inked annotation to volume information. Some mild foxing, with a few leaves more heavily spotted; plates browned. Plate VII with outer edge cropped, with loss of some characters; plate V with short tear from inner margin.
Jacob, P.L. Les perles. Pièces d'écrin artistique et littéraire. Paris: Veuve Jules Renouard, 1867. Folio (35 cm, 13.75"). Add. engr. t.-p., [2], 81, [1] pp.; 22 plts.
$600.00
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Scarce, and
undescribed in any major database. Edited and contributed to by the prolific French author Paul Lacroix, best known as “Bibliophile Jacob,” this lovely collection of short stories, poems, and meditations by Lacroix, Balzac, Émile Délerot, Charles Nodier, et al. is illustrated with
22 large steel engravings done by J.C. Armytage, W. Greatbach, J.B. Allen, J.T. Willmore, F. Joubert, and others after designs by artists including Turner, Webster, etc.
Contemporary quarter morocco over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding lightly rubbed over sides and extremities. Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate. Front free endpaper and first few leaves separated. Occasional faint pencilled vocabulary annotations, in English. Scattered light spots of foxing, with most plates clean and untouched, a few showing some spotting in margins.

A QUITE
Luxurious & Useful Production
Jacquemart, Albert. Histoire de la céramique. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1873. 4to (26.5 cm, 10.43"). [2] ff., 750, [2] pp. 12 pls.
$425.00
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Canvassing ancient Egypt to the Italian Renaissance and modern times, this monograph on ceramic art distinguishes classes and styles of pottery, is illustrated with
200 wood-engraved figures by Hercule Catenacci and Jules Jacquemart, bears
12 full-page engraved plates by the latter, and tells how to identify many works' makers, cataloguing
1,000 marks and monograms. Each full-page plate is protected by a guard sheet with a brief letterpress description.
Jules Jacquemart (1837–80) was but in his mid-twenties when he began drawing from the renowned art collection of his father, Albert, an art historian. The Jacquemarts' first book on the subject was the Histoire de la porcelaine, followed shortly by this, its companion, in 1873, when Jules was “at work again on his own best work of etching.” He also made the etchings for Techener's Histoire de la bibliophilie (1860–64) and, in 1864, received an important commission from the French crown for Gemmes et joyaux de la couronne (1865).
The monograph's original
color-painted beaux-arts wrappers are bound in at the front and back here, including the spine in front (rubbed and faded, hinting at original splendor). The title-page is printed in red and black. An extensive index appears at the end.
Binding: Three-quarter evergreen morocco bordered with gilt fillets over bubble gum and mint marbled paper boards; spine with raised bands, gilt-framed compartments containing author, title, date, and appropriate devices in gilt; endpapers matching marbled boards and top edge gilt.
For J. Jacquemart, see: The Nineteenth Century, Vol. IX, pp. 681–90. Leather lightly scuffed at extremities and sunned to a woody green on spine and upper front cover; offsetting from turn-ins onto endpapers. Mild to (occasionally) moderate foxing throughout and old water damage on a few leaves only. (30132)
[Justel, Henri, ed.].
Recueil de divers voyages faits en Afrique et en l’Amerique,
qui n’ont point esté encore publiez.... Paris: Louis Billaine, 1674.
4to (23.7 cm, 9.4"). á4ã4A–Z4Aa–Hh4
Ii2Kk4Ll21§–4§45§2
**A–**C4 a2b–g4 *A–*K4L2;
[8] ff., 262, 35, [1 (blank)] 23, [1 (blank)], 49, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f., 81,
[1 (blank)] pp., 3 fold. plans, 4 maps (3 fold.), 9 plts.
$6500.00
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First edition
of this collection of significant and interesting voyages, edited by
a scholar and book collector who served in the employ of Louis XIV before being
appointed Keeper of the King’s Library at St. James by Charles II. The
compilation includes French-language travelogues of Barbados, the Nile River,
Ethiopia, “l’Empire du Prète-Jean,” Guiana, Jamaica,
and the English colonies, with illustrations including banana and palmetto trees,
Caribbean pottery, and maps of New England, Jamaica (including Florida and the
Antilles), and Barbados.
Some of both the voyages and the maps
make their first published appearances here—among them the New England
map depicting the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, engraved by R. Michault
after one contained in Richard Blome’s Description of the Island
of Jamaica, part of which work appears here translated into French.
Altogether,
a volume notable both for its strong African and North American content and
for the aesthetic appeal of its plates and pleasingly ornamented typography.
Sabin 36944; Alden & Landis 674/159; Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection
68; Baer, 17th-Century Maryland, 78. Recent 17th-century style mottled
calf with covers framed in a gilt roll and double-panelled in gilt fillets
with gilt-stamped corner fleurons,; spine with gilt-stamped leather title
and author labels and gilt-stamped decorative devices. Several pages (not
including title) and the versos of a few plates stamped by a now-defunct institution.
Paper slightly embrittled. Light waterstaining to a number of leaves and plates,
mostly in margins; the first map with two repairs. One leaf (blank?) prior
to Colonies Angloises excised; lacking the folding map of the Nile.
A good copy, in a handsome binding of recent vintage and contemporaneous style.
(8746)

First French Koran — Pirated Edition
Koran. L'Alcoran de Mahomet. Traduit d'Arabe en François, par le Sieur du Ryer, Sieur de la Garde Malezair. A la Haye: Adrian Moetjens, 1683. 12mo (13.7 cm, 5.4"). Frontis., [10], 486, [4] pp.
[SOLD]
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Early reissue of an Elzevir edition of the first published French translation of the Koran, done by Orientalist and diplomat André du Ryer. Ryer's translation, originally published in 1647, was only the third western version and the first rendered from the original Arabic rather than the Latin.
This edition opens with a copper-engraved added title-page signed by J. Padebrugge; the main title-page bears the Elzevir sphere mark. Willems notes that it is “une copie exacte et ligne pour ligne de celle [the Elzevir edition] de 1672, dont en effect Moetjens s'était rendu adjudicataire, mais c'est positivement une réimpression.” It is, in effect, a
line-for-line piracy, and a handsome one faithful to its original's good qualities.
Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only eight U.S. holdings.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of collector Robert J. Hayhurst.
Brunet, III, 1309; Willems 1472. Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum remarkably clean. Original blue silk place marker present and intact. Front free endpaper with upper outer corner excised, mostly removing an early inked ownership inscription; title-page with early inked inscriptions lined through; back free endpaper with recent pencilled purchase record. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, just touching text without loss. Pages clean. A nice book. (25561)
Lacombe, Albert. Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris. Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. [bound with his] Grammaire de la langue des Cris. Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. 8vo (24 cm, 9.5"). 2 pts. in 1 vol. [7] ff., [v]–xx, 711 (i.e., 709), [3 (1 blank)] pp.; fold. map; [1] f., iii, [1 (blank)], 190 pp.; fold. chart.
$850.00
First edition of this important linguistic aid. The dictionary is French to Cree and then Cree to French, with the Cree in roman alphabet. The grammar is organized, as one must expect, along the traditional Latin paradigm. Father Lacombe was a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and served as chaplain to workers laying track for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
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Several bibliographies, including Pilling's Proof-sheets and Ayer, treat this as two distinct works. Indeed, the dictionary and the grammar do each have their own distinct title-pages, pagination, and signature markings. They were issued together, however, though sometimes separated for sale. The publisher’s original paper wrappers are bound into this volume.
Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, 283; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-93 & Cree-9; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2155 & 2156. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Wrappers (bound in) dust-soiled and with edge chips; front wrapper partially adhered to half-title and back wrapper with Grammaire half-title affixed. Map partially adhered to an additional half-title. Page edges untrimmed; pages very slightly age-toned, else clean. Pagination jumps from 708 to 711 in pt. 1, but as the word listing goes from sagamité to sagamo it seems certain that the text is complete.
Lacombe's Grammar of
This "Beautiful" Language
Lacombe, Albert. Grammaire de la langue des Cris. Montréal: C.-O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. 8vo. [1] f., iii, [1 (blank)], 190 pp.; fold. table.
$975.00

First edition of the Rev. Lacombe's Cree grammar, a language whose grammatical structure has favorably impressed more than one investigator. Archdeacon Hunter in an 1875 lecture stated that he was extremely "impressed with the beauty,
order, and precision of the language used by the Indians around us. . . . If a Council of Grammarians, assembled from among the most eminent in all nations, had after years of labour propounded a new scheme of language, they could scarcely have elaborated a system more regular, beautiful, and symmetrical. . . . "
Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-95; Pilling, Algonquian, 283; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2156; Banks 36. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Modern maroon cloth with black spine and corners. Very good copy.
For
more NEW WORLD LANGUAGE material, more than
a little of it reflecting the French experience in CANADA,
click here.

Neat
5-Volume Set
Elegantly
Bound
Ladvocat, Jean Baptiste.
Dictionnaire historique,
philosophique et critique, abrégé de Bayle et des grands dictionnaires biographiques qui ont paru
jusqu’a la publication de la biographie nouvelle des contemporains. Paris: Librairie Historique,
1821–22. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.1"). 5 vols. I: xiv, 480 pp. II: [4], 473, [1] pp. III: [4], 575, [1] pp. IV:
[4], 474 pp. V: [4], 496 pp.
$375.00

Scarce corrected and expanded edition of this biographical dictionary, following the
first of 1760, with entries updated to 1789. Originally published as the Dictionnaire historique
portatif des grands hommes, the work was based on Pierre Bayle’s famed Dictionaire historique et
critique (published in 1696) and on various other compendiums of the French Enlightenment era;
the title-page notes that this edition is intended “Pour servir d’introduction à la Biographie
nouvelle des contemporains,” edited by A.V. Arnault, A. Jay, E. Jouy, and J. Norvins, and — like
the present set — published by the Librairie historique.
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The Abbé Ladvocat, librarian of the Sorbonne and a prominent Hebraist and Biblical
exegete, also compiled the Dictionnaire géographique-portatif and a Grammaire Hébraïque à
l’usage des Ecoles de la Sorbonne.
Binding: Contemporary vellum,
spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped
compartment decorations.
Quérard, La France littéraire, IV,
387.
Some volumes somewhat sprung and spines slightly darkened, one spine
label chipped (refurbished) and one spine with small area of insect damage. Front free endpapers
each with inked ownership inscription dated 1833, front pastedowns each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Occasional small early inked shouldernotes, scattered light to
moderate foxing and spotting. Pp. 181–88 of vol. IV bound in upside down and in reverse order.
One leaf with closed tear from upper margin, just extending into text. (20682)
Amour . . .
Lassalle, Ferdinand. Une page d'amour de Ferdinand Lassalle. Recit - Correspondance - Confessions. Stamford, CT: Overbrook Press, 1959. 8vo. [8], 86, [2] pp.
$45.00
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for an enlargement.
One of 250 copies printed of these ardent love letters, in French, allegedly written by Lassalle to a young girl he met while taking the water cure at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1860.
Publisher's cloth, clean and unworn, in original glassine dustwrapper. (14192)

The World in Miniature — Map & Two Plates
Legrand, Augustin. Geographie universelle. Paris: 1823. 16mo (6.5 cm, 2.55"). 48 pp.; 1 fold. map, 2 plts.
[SOLD]
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Tiny overview of global geography: No. 3 in the “Petite Bibliothèque Portative” series. Legrand specialized in educational and entertaining works for children, and published several other juvenile works on geometry as well as a Histoire de France and a volume of fables. This volume opens with a
folding map of the globe (“oversized” would not be the correct term, here!); also present are two plates representing natives in indigenous dress of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.
WorldCat locates only one U.S. institutional holding.
Publisher's printed pink wrappers; binding slightly cocked, gently worn, spine faded. Front endpapers with pencilled annotations. Pages slightly age-toned, map and plates lightly foxed, plates trimmed just to touch the heads of the tallest costumed figures.
A nice example of an uncommon item. (30252)
Le Hon, Henri Sébastien. L’homme fossile en Europe son industrie, ses moeurs, ses oeuvres d’art ... cinquième édition avec une notice biographique .... Paris: J. Baudry, 1878. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.9"). Frontis., viii, 487, [1] pp.; 3 plts.
$250.00
Fifth edition, following the first of 1848, with added paleontological and archeological notes by M.E. DuPont. This study of prehistoric peoples was written by a military man and artist who specialized in maritime painting before
becoming interested in natural history, astronomy, and geology; the work is illustrated with
a chromolithographic
frontispiece, three tinted lithographic plates, and numerous in-text wood engravings.
Contemporary quarter green sheep in imitation of morocco over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; joints and edges slightly rubbed, spine showing very faint traces of a now-absent label. Front pastedown with private collector’s 19th-century bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Half-title with chip to outer margin; pages and plates clean and fresh.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Briefwechsel zwischen Leibniz, Arnauld und dem Landgrafen Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels. Hannover: In Verlage der Hahnschen
Hof-Buchhandlung, 1846. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.2"). xiv, 210 pp.
$175.00
First edition: Philosophical correspondence conducted mostly in French by Leibniz, Antoine Arnauld, and Count Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels regarding Leibniz’s Discourse on Metaphysics, edited and with an introduction in German by C.L. Grotefend. This stand-alone volume was issued as part of Georg Henrich Pertz’s collected works of Leibniz, and includes a title-page for that series.
Brunet, III, 950; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 345. Contemporary paper-covered boards, spine with inked paper label; joints and extremities rubbed, spine label darkened, spine with shelving label (inked over) and stamped numeral. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate; inked numeral in lower margin of first text page (no other markings). Pages very faintly age-toned, with small spot of light staining to first five leaves, pages otherwise clean. (19450)

Defending a[n] [In?]Famous
Jansenist
Le Maistre, Antoine. Apologie pour feu Monsieur l'Abbé de St. Cyran. Contre l'extraict d'une information prétendue que l'on fit courir contre luy l'an 1638. Et que les Jésuites ont fait imprimer depuis quelques mois, à la teste d'un libelle diffamatoire intitulé, Sommaire de la théologie de l'Abbé de Sainct Cyran et du Sieur Arnauld. Divisée en deux parties. No place [Port Royal]: No publisher/printer, 1644. 8vo (15.5 cm; 6.25"). 2 parts in 1 vol. 106 pp., [7] ff., 199, [1] pp., [3] ff.
$750.00
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Port Royal and Jansenism are synonymous in the history of France in the 1630s and 1640s. Various members of the related Le Maistre and Arnauld families, including Antoine Le Maistre, were drawn to Port Royal for religious or spiritual reasons, Antoine's translation there from Paris having been due to his attraction to the teachings of Jean Du Vergier de Hauranne (abbé de Saint-Cyran) who had introduced Jansenism into France. Le Maistre (1608–58) gave up a promising and young legal career, for he was not yet 30. Despite his youth, he had attracted the attention of Cardinal Richelieu who did not take kindly to his defection; almost coincidental with Le Maistre’s arrival in Port Royal was Jean Du Vergier de Hauranne’s arrest and imprisonment at the cardinal’s instigation.The present work, published after Du Vergier’s death in 1643, defends him against attacks by Jesuit writers. This is the second edition, published the same year as the first. This edition in 8vo format, the first having been in 4to.
Evidence of readership: Early underlining, a few marginal notes, and other notes on blank pages.
Searches of WorldCat and COPAC locate two copies in the U.S. and three in Britain. All located copies are in 4to format.
Contemporary vellum over paste boards, a significant piece of vellum missing from spine (i.e., missing for a long, long time). 19th-century bookplate, light staining here and there, some age-toning; some soot-soiling to top edge and occasionally into upper margin. Minor worming in lower and inner margins of pp. 133 to end. A decent copy with some faults, scarce, and priced accordingly. (26200)
Lenormant, François. Les premières civilisations études d’histoire et d’archéologie. Paris: Maisonneuve & Cie., 1874. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.85"). 2 vols. I: viii, 401, [11] pp. II: [4], 437, [3] pp.
$175.00
Sole edition: Collection of essays on prehistoric archeology, focusing in the first volume on Egypt and in the second on Chaldea, Assyria, and Phoenicia. The author was raised virtually from birth to follow in the footsteps of his archeologist father, Charles Lenormant; among his contributions to classical scholarship was his identification of the language now known as Akkadian.
Contemporary quarter black morocco with paper-covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; bindings clean and solid with only very minimal edge and corner wear. Front pastedowns and free endpapers each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Pages slightly age-toned; a few leaves unopened.
Handsome.
Lens, André Corneille. Le costume ou essai sur les habillements et les usages de plusieurs peuples de l’antiquité, prouvé par les monuments. Liege: Aux dépens de l’auteur, chez J.F. Bassompierre, 1776. 4to (24.9 cm, 9.8"). xxxi, [1], 411, [1] pp.; 51 plts
$1750.00
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mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First edition: Treatise on ancient dress among the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, and Romans, among other peoples. The author, a Flemish artist also known as Andries Cornelis Lens, came to the study of antiquarian clothing by way of his classically inspired focus in painting. Illustrated with 51 copper-engraved plates done by Pitre Martenasie, this is an “Ouvrage estimé” according to Brunet (who seemingly mistakenly cites 57 engravings as opposed to the 51 given by von Lipperheide, described in institutional holdings, and present here).
Brunet, III, 980; Von Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 105. Contemporary calf, rebacked in complementary style, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original leather acid-pitted and cracked over edges and extremities. Front pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket from Albany, NY; free endpapers with a few stray pencilled notations. Dedication page with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin.
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