Provenance:  Front pastedown with 1825 bookplate of the Royal Society of Literature.

•  Brunet, IV, 859.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; rubbing overall with small abrasions to sides, back joint starting from foot with hinges (inside) tender and front hinge starting. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; title-page with old, faint inked check mark in upper margin. Original silk bookmark present and attached. Very light waterstaining in margins of several sections and extending across text from pp. 346 to end. A very interesting production.  (29080)

This volume for connoisseurs offers two distinct parts: first, the text printed and all the illustrations present as fully colored, delicately washed in shades of pink, blue, purple, grey, white, and earth tones; and second, a set of the illustrations in proofs uncolored and without text. Most of the illustrations in both suites areinitialed by Caruchet.

Jean Emmanuel Charles Nodier (1780–1844) was a French author and librarian, appointed to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in 1824. His literary stylemuch influenced the Romantics, including Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. This legend, first published in La Revue de Paris (1838), is representative of his fantastical oeuvre. It was later adapted into a French opera (Béatrice, 1914) and a film (1923).

Signed Binding: Crushed half milk chocolate morocco over marbled paper boards signed “V. Champs,” gilt author, title, and date to spine; patterned marbled endpapers (different from the covers). Original gilt and hand-colored stiff cream wrappers bound in, showing Béatrix full-figure on the front, her hands extended outward beneath the gilt title.

Provenance:  An initialed ink inscription beneath the Justification du tirage states this copy was “Offert à Madame Conquet” — who must have been related toM.L. Conquet, “the great Paris publisher of works of the romantic school,” whose publications were famous for being very limited editions and for the “high artistic quality of their illustrations” (“Books and Authors,” The New York Times, 26 March 1898).

•  Carteret, V, 141; Vicaire, VI, 179.   Binding as above. One small nick on the front leather near the spine, and board extremities (paper and leather) lightly rubbed. The publisher's authentication embossed stamp below the limitation statement. Text clean, unblemished. Simply, excellent.  (30135)

Both this and the first edition are scarce. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 find only seven U.S. institutional holdings of the 1677 printing.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, IV, 213; BM STC French, 1601–1700, R1083. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra; leather slightly acid-pitted, with edges and joints rubbed and unobtrusive number inked on back cover, spine with gilt a bit rubbed and paper shelving label in uppermost compartment. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1737.

•  Publisher's elaborately blind-embossed and gilt-stamped paper in imitation of leather. Spine chipped and worn at tips. Some loss of paper to covers, with a half-inch off on bottom front corner.

Extremely uncommon. Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 locate just three institutional holdings, only one in the U.S.

•  18th-century quarter sheep with speckled paper–covered sides, rubbed and abraded; front joint open and back joint starting, leather cracking and gilt lettering to spine all but lost. Front pastedown with pencilled notations and institutional bookplate, front fly-leaf and title-page rubber-stamped, front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated [18]45. Pages untrimmed. Moderate foxing; some leaves with red staining along inner margin, not approaching text. Two leaves with small portion of lower margin excised; separate title-page for second work with small portion of outer margin excised and replaced some time ago with a scrap of paper bearing an early inked annotation.

The marginal notes here are printed in French!

•  Palau 221179; Peeters-Fontainas 1056; Gallardo 3449; Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature 457. 19th-century calf, old style. Scuffed and abraded. Front free endpapers starting to loosen and with a few tears in margins. Text clean and tight.

François Raymond Joseph de Pons (1751–1812) was archivist for the French Navy. This work also appeared in English, German, and Spanish editions; this is its first edition, and the sole French edition.

Provenance: Engraved armorial bookplates of Thomas Munro on front pastedowns. Unattributed note in pencil in top margin of half-title of vol. I (repeated in substance in the other volumes): “This was Talleyrand’s copy.”

Single-click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 8461 (for first ed.); not in Garrison & Morton. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed at edges and joints, spine a bit scuffed, joints just starting at front foot and back head. Front fly-leaf with student’s inked ownership inscription dated 1768. Some instances of light spotting and age-toning, pages mostly clean. All edges marbled.

Signed Binding: Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in substantial gilt and blind-tooled rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, surrounding central gilt-stamped medallions of the French imperial eagle. Spines gilt extra in arabesque and foliate motifs with additional blind-tooling; board edges gilt-stamped and turn-ins with wide gilt rolls. All edges gilt. Bindings signed by Charles Hering — one of the most prominent English binders of the early 19th century.

added the complementary material found in the second and subsequent editions.

The main title's engraved emblematic vignette, done by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, depicts a female figure with eyes obscured; leaning on a cross and an anchor and raising in her hand the flaming heart that signifies St. Augustine, she is accompanied on her cloud by tablets representing the Ten Commandments, a scroll labelled “Isaie,” and a codex blazoning the Gospel (a sword, a scourge, and a radiance visible behind this last).

•  Brunet, IV, 1083–84; Graesse, VI, 15.   Contemporary calf, spine with gilt-stamped title, raised bands, and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments, turn-ins with gilt roll; sides somewhat abraded and stained with a bit of leather lost and joints starting. Separate title-page of “La Grâce” with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin. Mild spotting; some portions with waterstaining mostly confined to margins. One leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into lines without touching letters. A volume neatly illustrating “one sort of thing people used to do with books.”  (29078)

•  Binding as above, spine gilt dimmed, edges and extremities lightly worn. Lower page margins waterstained, with foxing throughout. (10712)

Scarce. OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 report only one U.S. holding of this item.

•  Contemporary quarter morocco with mottled paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands; spine slightly darkened, edges and corners showing traces of wear. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Publisher’s printed paper wrappers bound in; front fly-leaf partially adhered to front inside wrapper. Pages lightly age-toned, else clean. A good copy.

The book is illustrated with 100 engraved plates and numerous in-text engravings, as well as a frontispiece map of the Holy Land in each volume. The plates are mostly figural illustrations taken from paintings in catacombs and on sarcophagi, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, ivory figurines, murals, etc. The title-pages are printed in black and red ink, and decorated with an engraved vignette.

•  Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers. Spines sunned and front cover of vol. II slightly sunned along fore-edge also; cloth of spines frayed at extremities and chipped in other places. Hinges (inside) of vol. I a little weak, stitching exposed; corners bumped with cloth damage; pages very shallowly bumped. Ex-library, with shelf labels on spines, institutional bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp to title-pages and one other page in each volume. Paper very good; pages clean and bright.  (24688)

•  Brunet, IV, 1224; Cohen, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siecle, 510–11; Lewine, Bibliography of eighteenth century art and illustrated books, 252.   Later quarter oxblood morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; light wear to paper. Frontispiece mounted some time ago, title-page with short tear from lower margin, repaired; pages age-toned, with foxing and soiling/staining in various degrees throughout; despite flaws, a charmer. Uncut copy.  (29322)

•  Brunet, IV, 1421. Contemporary black half morocco over blue pebbled cloth, spine beautifully gilt extra, leather edges ruled in gilt; volume clean and virtually unworn. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings); some soiling and offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper. Many leaves lightly to moderately foxed, a few more heavily — the paper here was not as good as it might have been. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching page number but not text. An attractive production. (19301)