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Literature & Linguistics / French Literature

Only know copy of this miniature Almanac for 1763, in a fine gold-tooled red morocco binding

[ALMANAC - FRENCH]. Le joli Pont-Neuf, ou recueil de chansons; vaudevilles, &c. Almanach nouveau.
"Amsterdam" [= Paris?], sold in Paris, Duchesne, [1763]. 24mo (9.5 x 5.6 cm). Each page printed in simple woodcut border, with several small head and tailpieces. Contemporary gold-tooled French red morocco, fine green, gold, and white brocade paper endpapers with a foral pattern. [40] ll. Full description
€ 1,700
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Early edition of the first real children's book

BAÏF, Lazare de and [Charles ESTIENNE (editor)]. De re vestiaria libellus, ex Bayfio excerptus: addita vulgaris linguae interpretatione, in adolescentulorum gratiam atque utilitatem.
Paris, Roberti Stephani [Robert Estienne], (colophon: 13 April) 1541. Small 8vo (ca. 16.5 x 10.5 cm). With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page. Modern blueish-grey paper over boards with the title printed in black on the spine, red sprinkled edges. 68, [11], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 2,500
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Second part of the first ever series of children's books

BAÏF, Lazare de and [Charles ESTIENNE (editor)]. De vasculis libellus, adulescentulorum causa ex Bayfio decerptus, addita vulgari Latinarum vocum interpretatione.
Paris, Roberti Stephani [Robert Estienne], (colophon: 13 October) 1543. 8vo. With a woodcut printer's device on the title-page. Later blueish-grey paper over boards with the title printed in black on the spine. 52, [3], [1 blank] pp. Full description
€ 1,750
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73 proof impressions of all 12 illustrations

BAYARD, Émile. [Proof impressions of illustrations for Alphonse Daudet's Fromont jeune et Risler aîné].
[Paris, 1885]. Folio (35 x 29 cm). Proofs of 12 engraved plates in many different states, giving 73 prints in total, engraved by Jules Massard and Eugène Abot after Emilé Bayard (image size 10.7 x 7.3 cm; plate size 19 x 14 cm). Contemporary half goatskin morocco. Full description
€ 4,750
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First edition of first French translation of Boccaccio's first work, with woodcut illustrations

BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. Le philocope ..., contena[n]t l'histoire de Fleury & Blanchefleur, divise en sept livres traduictz d'Italien en Francoys par Adrian Sevin ...
Paris, Jean André, bookseller to the University (colophon: printed by Denis Janot), 1542 (colophon: 24 February 1542). Folio (31.5 x 21.5 cm). With Jean André's woodcut device on the title-page and 15 woodcut illustrations plus 21 repeats in the text (mostly 5.5 x 8 cm, each in any of several 4-piece decorative borders, including 8 foot pieces, each with a different coat of arms; one illustration 13.5 x 8.5 cm with an 8-piece decorative border), 5 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) plus 1 repeat, and many spaces with guide-letters for manuscript initials (not filled in). French calf (ca. 1760?), richly gold-tooled spine, gilt edges. VI, CLXXIIII ll. Full description
€ 12,500
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Luxuriously produced bibliophile edition, illustrated by Bernard Picart

BOILEAU DESPRÉAUX, Nicolas. Oeuvres. Avec des éclaircissemens historiques, donnez par lui-même.
Amsterdam, David Mortier, 1718. 2 volumes. Folio. With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece, incorporating a portrait of the author, an engraved vignette with portrait of Erasmus on the title page of both volumes, both titles are printed in red and black, all text pages are set within a fine typographical woodcut border, an engraved part-title, 6 full-page engraved plates, 2 engraved headpieces, 2 engraved initials, and 27 engraved tailpieces by Bernard Picart.
Late 18th or early 19th-century gold-tooled straight-grain dark blue morocco, with the title and imprint lettered in gold on the spine, a single fillet and two ornamental borders on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and gauffered edges, orange end papers. [4], XVIII, [4], 450; [4], VII, [1], 370, [20] pp. Full description
€ 2,950
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A popular collection of amorous poetry

BONNEFONS, Jean. Pancharis.
Lyon, Thomas Soubron, 1593. 2 parts in 1 volume. 12mo. With a large woodcut printer's device on the title page of the first part, and a smaller variant device on the title page of the second part, further with 5 woodcut headpieces, 3 woodcut tailpieces, 6 woodcut decorated initials, and a border made up of typographical materials around the colophon. With: DURAND, Gillis. Imitations du Latin de Iean Bonnefons: avec autres gayetez amoureuses, de l'invention de l'autheur.
Lyon, pour Thomas Soubron (colophon: Etienne Servain), 1593. 17th-century gold tooled brown calf. 68; 153, [1] pp. Full description
€ 1,950
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First edition of the most influential gastronomic publication: "Tell me what you eat; I'll tell you what you are"

[BRILLAT-SAVARIN, Jean Anthelme]. Physiologie du gout, ou méditations de gastronomie transcendante, ouvrage théorique, historique et à l'ordre du jour, dédié aux gastronomes Parisiens.
Paris, Auguste Sautelet et Cie. (back of title-page: printed by David), 1826 [1825]. 2 volumes. 8vo. With a woodcut device on both title-pages. Contemporary half calf, gold-tooled spines, marbled edges and endpapers. [2], XIV, [1], 6-390; 442 pp. Full description
€ 12,500
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Very rare series of 32 erotic prints of the notorious case of father Girard and Mlle Cadière

[CADIÈRE, Catherine and Jean-Baptiste GIRARD (subject)]. Historische print- en dicht-tafereelen, van Jan Baptist Girard, en juffrou Maria Catharina Cadiere.
[The Netherlands?], 1735. Small 4to (24 x 18.5 cm). With 32 "scenes", each consisting of an engraved plate with a letterpress poem on the facing page. Gold-tooled red half goatskin morocco (2nd half of the 19th century), richly gold-tooled spine. 24, [128] pp. Full description
€ 6,500
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Series of 118 love emblems, a rare later issue

CAPUCIN, Père. Les emblèmes d'amour divin et humain ensemble. Expliquez par des vers François. Par un pere Capucin.
[Paris, ca. 1745]. 8vo. With an engraved title-page and 118 numbered full-page engraved emblems. Contemporary gold-tooled mottled calf, sewn on 4 recessed cords, the spine divided into 6 fields by fillets, the 2nd with a red morocco label and each of the others with a flower (closed thistle?) and several small stamps, each board with a frame of triple fillets with a second flower inside each corner and a star at each corner intersection, gold fillets on board edges, gilt edges, marbled endpapers (red, yellow, green, blue and white, curled). 119 ll. Full description
€ 4,500
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