Superb deluxe edition of this short novel by George Sand. Limited edition to 225 numbered copies on Marais vellum paper, this one bearing the number 10. The story is about the Marquise de R., an attractive young woman who is wounded by an unhappy marriage but who soon discovers a devouring and platonic passion for Lélio, a humble actor of unknown talent. Alas, we soon discover that the beautiful woman is only in love with a shadow, since, as soon as he is stripped of his finery and taken off the stage, Lélio turns out to be a vile and ordinary man. The abundant illustration comprises a portrait of the author engraved by François Courboin (1865-1926) after Thomas Couture (1815-1879), as well as 3 head pieces, 3 tailpieces and 3 plates, also engraved by Courboin after drawings by Baugnies. Our copy presents each engraving in double or triple state. A superb wide-margined copy bound in elegant contemporary blue morocco with the original wrappers bound in. Signed by Chambolle-Duru. Provenance: from the P. Villeboeuf collection with ex libris.
First edition, second state, of this masterpiece of French Romanticism (Emond Jaloux). Carteret, II, 503; Clouzot 188; Vicaire, V, 103-104. This kind of prose epic, in 6 songs, was published in Brussels by Lacroix and Verboeckoven in 1869. Only 5 or 6 copies dated 1869 are known. Lacroix sold his stock to a Brussels bookseller, Rosez, who put back on sale almost all the copies with a title and a wrapper bearing the address of Paris and Brussels and dated 1874. "Copies of the second state are quite rare; their price keeps going up". (Clouzot). "I have not been able to see the 1869 edition, which is the original". (Vicaire). This magical and torturous book is the most disconcerting in French literature. Its theme remains man's rebellion against God. Suspected of insanity, Lautréamont nonetheless produced a hallucinatory work that has won him a growing readership. Edmond sees in this work "The masterpiece of French Romanticism". Lautréamont has certainly reached one of the limits of literary creation. The inventor of a style, like Rimbaud and Mallarmé, he opened up an immense career for the imaginary. « O poulpe au regard de soie ! Toi dont l'âme est inséparable de la mienne : toi, le plus beau des habitants du globe terrestre et qui commandes à un sérail de quatre cents ventouses ». Vividly reclaimed by the Surrealist school, he is in part the driving force behind the modern poetic spirit. A precious untrimmed copy, with the original wrappers bound in, of this major book in the history of French literature.
First edition of the first great French pharmacopeia of the nineteenth century. Pritzel 509; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, VI, 160; Nissen BBI 1674; Stafleu-Cowan TL2 9496. This work is the result of the collaboration of Joseph Roques, an eminent physician and botanist, and Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, a prolific aquafortist, draftsman, and polygrapher. "M. Roque preceded his work with a detailed description of the various external parts of plants; there he successively examines the roots, the stems, the leaves, the flowering parts, the sexual organs [.]; and, we say it with frankness, it is impossible to give, on these various objects, a more methodical, more concise and clearer overview. A brief analysis of the particular methods of Tournefort, Linné and Jussieu, comes after these preliminary notions. In order not to be guilty of the same defects which degrade the works of his predecessors, we have noticed with pleasure also that M. Roques has severely proscribed all the plants whose properties had not been rigorously demonstrated by experience, and has rehabilitated some of them which a light and superficial examination had caused to be rejected; and in order to put the study of these plants within the reach of the greatest number of readers, M. Roques has arranged them in alphabetical order; at the same time, the author has taken care to place at the end of his work two tables in which the plants are arranged according to the natural method of Jussieu and according to the system of Linné [.]. Roques then traces in a precise and faithful way its external characteristics; he indicates the place where it is found, its analysis, its properties, the various circumstances in which it must be used as a medicine, and points out the poisonous principles which it can contain; finally each plant is accompanied by a colored figure, which renders it with a truth and striking fidelity. Besides, the form of the work refuses entirely to be analyzed; but in general one can say that the greatest number of articles has been treated with much knowledge. One always notices a wise and judicious mind which rejects any kind of hypothesis, and wants to be guided only by the facts and the sure course of observation, which is not usually one of the advantages that most medical subjects can boast. We will not dwell further on this work; its real merit speaks for it." (Bulletin des sciences physiques, 1810, pp. 266-270) The abundant illustration consists of a title-frontispiece and 132 engravings, finely hand watercolored at the time by grasset de saint-sauveur. A very fine copy of this abundantly illustrated botanical work, preserved in its contemporary binding. Provenance: from the Library of Guitet pharmacist in Angers with ex libris with his stamp on the half-title and titles. It is probably Benoît-François Guittet (1771-1860) military pharmacist of Angers and one of the founders of the savings bank.
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Precious and remarkable first issue before caption and numbering of the majority of the plates; the copy, close to Harvard College No. 519, having like this one 8 second issue plates with numbering but before captions: 13-18; 21 and 26. « Title-page without ornamentation. The volume consists of four preliminary leaves and twenty-six engraved plates of the story of Jason and Medea, approximately 63/16 x 9". The first is unsigned, the others are signed with the monogram "RB" of René Boyvin, and the last is signed in addition to the monogram, « Leonardus thiri. inuē. Renatus. .F » « In his dedication to Charles IX in French issue. Jean de Mauregard writes, "I'en ay faict desseigner & pour-traire curieusement les figures par Leonard Tyri de Belges peintre excellent (comme l'œuvre descouure) & apres faict tailler en cuiure par René Boyuin natif d'Angers : ny espargnant ne les frais ne la sollicitude, en esperance de vous en faire present qui pourroit estre agreable : fust pour la lecture du livre ou par-auenture pour patron de quelque tapisserie à orner vn jour les sales de vos magnifiques palais . . . ou pour une peinture exquise à enrichir quelque galerie" (recto of 2nd prelim. leaf). Leonard Thiry worked at Fontainebleau under Rosso and Primaticcio from 1536 to about 1542 (The Jason plates were attributed to both these masters when issued by later publishers.) Each scene measures about 3 3/8 x 5", while the remainder of the copperplate comprises an elaborate border displaying a fantastic assortment of figures, putti, grotesques, birds, animals, and cartouches containing small scenes. It is this wealth of invention in the borders, sometimes eclipsing the scenes themselves, that makes this a major work in the Fontainebleau tradition. For a study of the Jason series, and the extent to which Mauregard's plan of providing an artist's model book was realized, see J.-J. Marquet de Vasselot, "La conquête de la toison d'or et les émailleurs limousins du XVIe siècle," La revue de l'art ancien et moderne, vol. 34 (July-December 1913), p. [241], 253, [333}-345, reproductions. See also, Levron, Boyvin, p. 29-[34], P. 66-67, nos. 16-41, full series reprod. plates XIX-XLIV. Boyvin is one of the most influential figures in the early history of engraving in France. Robert Dumesnil (vol. 8, p. 36-44, n° 36-44) describes the copperplates in three states: first unnumbered, second with small numbers added at the top of the plate, and third - a much later impression - with the numbers removed. This copy contains a mixed set, the majority in the first state, but plates 13-18, 21 & 26 in the second, with the numbers. The fine, dark impression in this copy are particularly effective for the night scenes of n° 14, 18, and 23. The preliminary leaves are printed in roman and italic letter with three excellent grotesque initials. Mauregard's dedication is dated July 3rd and the privilege, July 14th of 1563. (Harvard, French Sixteenth, n°519). One of the most precious and rare suites of the school of Fontainebleau, engraved on copper by René Boyvin from drawings by Léonard Thiry, one of the first painters called to Fontainebleau by king François Ier collaborator of Rosso and Primatice in the decoration of the palace. Harvard, French 16th century books, II, n°519 ; Peter Ward Jackson, Some mainstreams and tributaries in European ornaments from 1500 to 1750, 1967, p. 10-13 ; Brun, Le livre français illustré de la Renaissance, p. 199 ; Brunet, II, 1648. The work originates from a commission from Jean de Mauregard who, for the entertainment of Charles IX, had asked Gohory for this mythological account of the conquest of the Golden Fleece. Mauregard, in his dedication, takes into account the dimension of "decorative repertoire" of the illustration and presents it to the king. In 26 large format paintings (230 x 160 mm) leonard thiry excels in translating the multiple episodes of Jason's legend, inserted in magnificent and very elaborated borders which place the work in the great tradition of the school of Fontainebleau. "These prints were to be used as patterns for the great royal tapestries." J. Gohory. "Following the Italian wars, François Ier entirely devoted himself to the project of making industry, commerce and letters flourish. The celebrations given by the king, more elegant than sumptuous, offer the most brilliant images of chivalry. His almost universal curiosity pushed him to buy precious paintings and to propose them as models to French artists. He visited Primaticcio and Leonardo da Vinci in their studios and stimulated the emulation of French artists. He thus undertook the Louvre and had the castles of Fontainebleau, Chambord and Madrid built, surrounding himself with the greatest painters and sculptors of the time." The painter Leonardo Thiry was thus called upon by Francis I to exercise his talents at Fontainebleau where he worked from 1535 in close collaboration with Rosso and Primaticcio. He participated in the decoration of the Francis I Gallery and then from 1537 to 1550 at the Porte Dorée. The expense involved, the recruitment of artists, the effort of invention,
Very rare true first edition, known as "good leaves", of the young Radiguet's second and last novel. Unique edition known as "good leaves" limited to 20 copies for Radiguet's friends, giving the first state of the novel before the modifications and deletions subsequently applied by the correctors (Cocteau, P. de Lacretelle, R. Behaine, J. Kessel, Grasset). The wrapper bears this inscription: Epreuve du roman de Raymond Radiguet Le Bal du comte d'Orgel. En l'état exact laissé par l'auteur et avant toutes corrections même typographiques. Every page shows that the text is very different from the published one, and that there have been many important changes. Twenty numbered copies were printed from these good sheets. The number on this copy, which is difficult to read, seems to be no. 4. Raymond Radiguet submitted the proofs of his second novel to Grasset in October 1923. Judging the text to be complete, the publisher immediately printed proofs before the end of October. Radiguet died suddenly on December 12 without being able to correct them. As a tribute to the late novelist, Grasset nevertheless printed 20 copies before the definitive edition, whose text was heavily modified. "This second and last book by the young Raymond Radiguet (1903-1923), published a year after his death, marks a milestone in the style of this prodigiously precocious writer. Whereas in "Le Diable au corps" (The Devil in the Body) he had dealt with the theme of an adolescent involved in too great a love affair, with obvious anti-romantic and anti-rhetorical intentions, relying only on the meager enchantments of a meticulous and precise "relation", here he attempts the novel of pure analysis: a novel, where only the psychology is novelistic, all imaginative effort tending to suggest, not external events, but feelings. As such, the novel, or rather tale, is devoid of plot. François, a quiet, refined young man who lives alone with his mother and is wealthy enough not to need a profession, meets Count Anne d'Orgel by chance one evening at the theater, a picturesque type of aristocrat for whom life consists in scrupulously and wisely observing a series of worldly duties. The excellent old man introduces him to his milieu and his family. There, François meets his new friend's young wife. A few glances are all it takes for love to blossom between them. However, this love is challenged by the sense of duty and loyalty of these two souls. During a ball, the two protagonists become deeply convinced that their passion, however dominated by fate, will always be sacrificed to duty. In fact, nothing happens, and the drama remains purely internal, which leads to meticulous psychological analysis [.]. With this little book, Radiguet has offered a typical model of one of the characteristic trends dominating the contemporary French novel: neo-classicism". (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, I, 376). Precious copy preserved in wrappers as issued.
