Fin de siècle

1683 · ST20461-2 — Paris: Pierre le Petit 1683. 203 x 127 mm. 8 x 5". 4 p.l. first blank xxxii 629 3 pp. <br/> REGAL CONTEMPORARY RED MOROCCO GILT covers with French fillet border central field semé with alternating fleur-de-lys and Louis XIV's stylized "L" topped with a crown raised bands spine compartments with crowned "L" at center oblique fleur-de-lys at corners marbled endpapers olive green morocco label all edges gilt. Printer's device on title page and four engraved plates depicting the Entry into Jerusalem the Crucifixion the Descent into Hell and the Resurrection. Front pastedown with morocco bookplate of Hans Fürstenberg; verso of front free endpaper with book label of the Fondation Fürstenberg. USTC 6098649. For the binding: Olivier Pl. 2493 Fer no. 8. Top inner corner of covers a shade darker but apparently not from moisture boards tending to splay slightly corners a bit bumped endpapers with offsetting from binder's glue but the binding lustrous with very little wear to the joints and generally pleasing. About a quarter of the leaves with small faint dampstain at upper gutter intermittent minor browning and foxing more pronounced on a couple of quires other unserious signs of devout use but the text with nothing approaching a fatal defect.<br/> <br/> Bound for a distinguished library--and perhaps for a member of the French royal household--and with an illustrious modern provenance this is a pleasing copy of a 17th century Parisian edition of the Office of Holy Week. The attractive engravings that accompany these paschal hours demonstrate the lush graceful style that distinguished the fine late baroque printmakers. The scenes of the Crucifixion and Resurrection were engraved by Jean Morin ca. 1605-50 whose innovation of combining engraving and etching on the same plate ushered in a new popular style of printmaking and the depiction of the Entry into Jerusalem by Flemish artist Peter Paul Bouche fl. ca. 1685-1702 is especially pleasing. But the story of this volume is its period binding. The owner who commissioned the binding may well have been a member of the noted Lamoignon family whose celebrated library was built over several generations but particularly by Chrétien-François de Lamoignon I 1644-1709 a cultivated man of letters and friend to writers such as Boileau and Racine. The "L" surmounted by a crown appears typically on the family bindings though normally accompanied by the same cypher stamped in the margin of the third leaf of text a stamp that is not present here. The impressive library was sold to bookseller Thomas Payne and auctioned off in 1791-92. Equally or really unequally the repeating motif of Louis XIV's crowned "L" monogram could well indicate that this was the property of royalty. We have not been able to identify its specific owner but this style of semis was not uncommon for royal bindings; the Russian National Library has two late 17th century examples with Louis XIV's own arms over an identical ground. According to Olivier the semis repetition alternating the monarch's initial with a fleur-de-lys or with a specific royal's cipher became popular during the reign of Louis XIII and continued under his successors; "the result for royal bindings is a sort of uniformity in the ornamentation which seems to reflect in the field of art the unification and centralization of France." Our binding's crisp precise tooling has survived beautifully despite apparent dedicated devotional use by its early owner. Our copy is further distinguished by coming from the collection of Hans or Jean Fürstenberg 1890-1982 a bibliophile of refined discrimination who assembled one of the great collections of the 20th century and whose books were noted for their outstanding condition. He put together one of the finest collections of 18th century French books ever assembled and his library contained a discriminating selection of bindings from other periods such as the present example. Pierre le Petit unknown