Versailles

1906 · 34864 — New York: Dodd Mead & Company 1906. First Edition. Illustrated with 55 full-page plates in colour by René Binet. Royal 8vo publisher's original blue cloth the spine lettered in gilt and blocked in blind the upper cover lettered in gilt and elaborately blocked in blind top edge gilt. viii 384 pp. A very fine copy. FIRST EDITION IN ESPECIALLY FINE CONDITION. With beautiful colourplates throughout. After studying at Le Puy-en-Velay in Rodez and Clermont-Ferrand Pierre de Nolhac went to Paris in 1880 to undertake a literature degree at the Sorbonne and the École pratique des hautes études where he later became director of studies. A Member of the French School of Rome in 1882 he worked there on Italian humanism of the sixteenth century. In 1886 he was attached to the Museum in the Palace of Versailles and became curator in 1892 founding a chair of art history within the École du Louvre in 1910 then retiring to the Musée Jacquemart-André in 1920. He was elected a member of the Académie française in 1922.<br> His activities in the museum of Versailles were crucial since they contributed greatly to modernisation and to restoring the collections including the furniture which had been dispersed during the French Revolution. He played a role in the preparations for the Treaty of Versailles which took place in the Palace in June 1919.<br> He left a substantial body of work largely devoted to history especially to Renaissance humanism. During his stay at the French School of Rome 1882-1885 he discovered unpublished manuscripts of Petrarch in the Vatican library and the discovery helped advance knowledge about Petrarch. His monograph on Fulvio Orsini is still authoritative. He also devoted several books to Queen Marie-Antoinette at Versailles. His work as a poet was recognised in his own time notably by his friend the Italian poet Gabriele d'Annunzio.<br> The central library of Versailles has many manuscripts of major works by de Nolhac including Erasmus and Italy Queen Marie Antoinette Nattier Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska. Dodd, Mead & Company hardcover