Bibliotheca Elegantissima, Parisina. Catalogue de Livres choisis, provenants du cabinet d'un amateur très distingué par son bon goût...Il contient Beaucoup de premières éditions des auteurs classiques; livres magnifiquement imprimés sur vélin avec des peintures; livres manuscrits avec de superbes miniatures; livres d'histoire naturelle...et livres de la plus grande rareté dans différentes classes de littérature…La vente se fera à Londres, au plus offrant, le lundi 28 mars 1791, et les 5 jours suivants.
2 p.l., 192 pp., one leaf of errata. 8vo, cont. calf (joints nicely repaired), flat spine gilt, contrasting leather lettering piece on spine. London: Edwards; Paris: Laurent, 1790.
A priced copy of the Paris edition of this famous sale; an English edition appeared the next year. For a fascinating account of this catalogue and sale (which caused traffic jams along Pall Mall), see Arthur Rau’s “Bibliotheca Parisina” in The Book Collector (Autumn 1969), pp. 307-17. Amongst the buyers at this sale were Lord Spencer, Douce, Woodhull, Cracherode, and the Duke of Newcastle.
Thanks to the recent researches of Milton McC. Gatch (“The Bibliotheca Parisina” in The Library, Seventh Series, Vol. 12, Number 2 (June 2011), pp. 90-118), we finally know the identity of the consignor: Antoine Marie Pâris d’Illins (1746-1809), a military man who was forced to emigrate in 1792 because of conflicts with the Revolution. Rehabilitated by Napoleon, Pâris d’Illins died as a general of the infantry during the Spanish campaigns at Cocana in 1809. See the entire article to learn more about the collector, his library, Edwards’s additions, etc.
We know that not all the books came from the one library; there were books from Loménie de Brienne, masquerading under another provenance probably for political reasons, and Aldines which Edwards must have obtained in Italy. Nevertheless, this is one of the great sales of the period.
Very good copy. The Paris edition is far rarer than the English edition.
❧ Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie Catholique, cols. 579-80–“Ce catalogue est d’une richesse remarquable…De forts beaux ouvrages provenant de la bibliothèque du cardinal Loménie de Brienne, avaient été joints à cette collection.” De Ricci, p. 89. Peignot, pp. 116-17. Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 92.
Price: $2,500.00
Item ID: 2814
