THE ANCIEN REGIME - part one

9. ALMANACH ROYAL Almanach Royal, Année M.DCC.LXX présenté a sa Majesté pour la premiere fois en 1699.

Paris: Chez Le Breton. 1770

8vo. 212x136mm. pp. 572. Sixteen blank leaves with red borders have been inserted for notes. Contemporary brick-red morocco,both covers ornately decorated in gilt with leaf motifs, fleur-de-lys, fleurons, small dots and circles and stars. The stars echo those on the coat of arms of at the centre of the covers which is that of the Crozat family indicating that this was probably from the library of Louis-Antoine Crozat, Baron de Thiers. Flat spine decorated in compartments with flower motif, second and third compartment lettered in gilt. Edges of boards and turn-ins decorated in gilt. All edges gilt, blue silk doublures. A smart aristocratic binding in near fine condition. Internally very good but with some minor marking in places and a marginal repair to title page affecting the text to verso but no loss. There are examples of these annually published French Royal Almanacs bound by the Royal Binder Pierre Paul Dubuisson and although there is no external evidence to indicate that this is the work of Dubuisson, there are elements of the tooling, particularly on the spine that suggest, the work of his atelier.

A handsomely bound example of the Almanac issued each year giving details of almost everything you could possibly want to know about the French state and the people who made it run - Royalty, the Church, the army, Parliament, diplomats, Royal librarians, doctors, lawyers and most importantly, inspectors of the vines.

10. ALMANACH ROYAL Almanach Royal, Année Bissextile M.DCC. LXXVI presenté a sa Majesté pour la premiere fois en 1699 Paris: Par le Breton. 1776

8vo. 215x140mm. pp. 655 [1bl]. The calendar at the front of the book has twelve blank leaves with black borders interleaved for making notes. Contemporary red morocco, both covers with French fillet border with simple fleuron motifs at the corners. At the inner corners of the borders are delicate flower and leaf motifs in gilt. At the centres of the covers are the coat of arms of Armand Thomas Hue, Marquis de Miromesnil. Flat spine decorated in compartments with flower motif, second and third compartment lettered in gilt. Edges of boards and turn-ins decorated in gilt. All edges gilt, blue silk doublures. Some slight rubbing to extremities but overall a smart aristocratic binding excellent condition. Internally very good but with some minor marking in places.

Published annually this Royal Almanac tells us who was who in the Ancien Regime. Miromesnil, who appears on page 274 was someone: the Keeper of the Seals under Louis XVI between 1774 and 1787, making him the deputy to the Chancellor of France, so the country’s second most important lawyer. A big wig, as evidenced by the superb bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon in the Frick Collection.

11. BELLEGARDE, Monsieur L'Abbé de L'Office de la Semaine-Sainte A L'Usage du Roy. Conformement aux Breviaires & Messels Romain & Parisiens. En Latin & en François. Avec l’explication de Cérémonies de l’Eglise, Et des Instructions, Prieres & courtes Réflextions sur les Mystéres & Offices que l’on célébre dans cette Sainte Semaine.

Paris: De l’Imprimerie de Jacques Collombat 1741

8vo. 212x133mm. pp. xvi, 632, [4]. Engraved frontispiece and half-title and engraved sectional title pages for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Woodcut head-pieces and decorated initials. Handsomely bound in red morocco, covers decorated with lavish strapwork and foliage motifs in gilt surrounded by a gilt border of leaf and flower motifs. At the centre of each cover is the coat of arms of Louis XV. Spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with strapwork with the royal fleur de lys in the centre. Second compartment lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Corners slightly bumped, light rubbing to joints but overall a beautiful Royal binding in excellent condition. Internally very good with some foxing and some slight marginal staining to the frontispiece and half title. Printed for the Royal household (Collombat taught Louis XV to print), this Prayer Book and Missal sets out the services, prayers and devotions for Holy Week and the first week of Easter, beginning on Palm Sunday and ending on Quasimodo Sunday. [3920]

Norimbergae [Nuremberg]:

1662

Quarto, 190x152mm. pp. [26], 832, 68. Red morocco, gilt with the arms of Jean-Baptiste Colbert at the centre of the upper and lower covers, spine with five raised bands, compartments with crowned monogram “JBC”. Colbert was Louis XIV’s Minister of Finance and the creator of one the finest private libraries of the seventeenth century, containing about 23,000 books and over 5,000 manuscripts. Title page has inscription “Bibliotheca Colbertina”. Front pastdown has armorial book-label of Harriman, Lecomte du

Nouy. This is Mary Harriman, the widow of the scientist Pierre Lecomte du Nouy. Edges sprinkled red. Some rubbing to joints and to the foot of the spine, corners and edge of lower board bumped but otherwise a nice copy. Internally excellent with some browning and foxing and a worm track to leaf N2.

George Richter (1592-1651) was a lawyer from Nuremberg and later the Vice-Chancellor of Altdorf University. He corresponded with many of the leading intellectuals of the time and his letters provide a fascinating and detailed insight into the cultural life of seventeenth century Germany, an insight that Colbert would have found invaluable. [3960] £1,250

13. Roman Catholic Church Missale Romanum ex decreto sacrosanctum Concilii Tridentini Restitum, S.Pii Pont. Max. Jussu Editum, Et Clementis VIII Primum, Nunc Denuo Urbani Papæ VIII. Auctoritate Recognitum, Et novis Missis...fuis locis accuratè ponuntur.

Bound with Missæ Propriæ Sanctorum Trium Ordinum Fratrum Minorum S.P.N.Francisci.

Ulyssipone [Lisbon]: Michaelem Manescal da costa. 1765 and with: Missæ Sanctorum novæ et propriæ a summis pontificibus approbatæ et concessæ pro regno Portug. Brasil. et Algarb. Olisipone: Ex typographia Rollandiana. 1824 and with: Missæ Speciales pro Patriarchatu Lisbonensi (n.d.) Ulyssipone [Lisbon]: Michaelem Manescal da costa 1764

Folio in 6s. 293x210mm. pp.[60], 658 [i.e.672], cxliv, [4].

Missæ Propriæ Sanctorum: pp. [10], 58. Missæ Sanctorum novæ: pp. 40. Missæ Speciales pro Patriarchatu Lisbonensi: pp. 8. Engraved plates of the Annunciation, Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Beautifully printed in red and black Contemporary red morocco, gilt. Both covers with richly tooled borders framing a further central border with ornate cornerpieces inside which is a lozenge formed of drawer-handle tooling and leaf motifs and small circles. Spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated in gilt with fleurons. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt and gauffered. Brass clasps. Corners bumped and bottom edges worn and some small wormholes on upper cover, otherwise in very good condition given that this missal was clearly used daily at the altar. Internally, there is some marginal damage to leaves Aaiii, iv (closed tear), v and to Bb iv (no loss of text) which are part of the text of the Mass and so would have been the most heavily used section of the book, pages being turned backwards and forwards each day. Some foxing and marking (slightly heavier to gathering CC) but overall in excellent condition. Tiny hooped bookmarks have been attached to the fore-edge of ten leaves to enable easy page-turning during the service.

A handsome altar missal printed by the pre-eminent Lisbon printer of the second half of the eighteenth century. Miguel Manescal da Costa ran the Portuguese National Printing Office from its founding in 1769 until his death in 1801. This missal just predates his appointment but it is clear from the quality of the printing on display here why he was chosen.

14. PARINI, Giuseppe Odi dell’Abate Giuseppe Parini gia’ divolgate. Parma [Bodoni]: Nel Regal Palazzo. 1791

152x102mm. pp. [2], viii, 180. Contemporary red morocco, gilt. Upper and lower covers with double fillet borders framing corner-pieces combining rococo and baroque designs and an elegant rococo centrepiece. Spine richly decorated and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Some slight marking to upper cover, corners lightly worn and a tiny worm hole at the top of the upper joint. Internally very good save for two tiny (and barely visible) worm holes on the inner margin at the gutter and some worming to the bottom margin of the last eleven leaves. Overall an excellent copy in a stylishly restrained rococo binding.

Beautifully printed by the Bodoni Press, this edition of Parini’s Odes appeared in the same year as the first edition published in Milan. Giuseppe Parini made his name as a satirist of the Milanese aristocracy (he had been badly treated by the Duke of San Gabrio while tutor to his son) but he also wrote a libretto (Ascanio in Alba) set by the sixteen year old Mozart. He was a priest (hence “dell’Abate”) and, briefly, a reluctant politician. His classical Odi are firmly in the Horatian mould, musings on arcadian themes leavened with social and moral apercus.

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