Printed in small numbers, illicitly passed out, sought-after, forgotten, found again, major works or confidential texts... Some of these works are extremely rare today ; here are a few of them.
First edition, printed in a small run of numbered copies.
With two photographic portraits: one of Charles Pathé and the other of his brother Émile, and a view of the Kodak-Pathé and Pathé-Cinéma factories.
3/4 beige sheepskin binding, spine with four raised bands decorated with black typographical motifs, date at foot of spine, marbled paper boards, endpapers and flyleaves.
Discrete restorations to spine, some rubbing to upper corners of boards.
Signed by Charles Pathé on his photographic portrait.
Rare first edition of this manual on film development.
Illustrated with 54 figures in the text and 6 folding plates at rear, containing 107 interesting samples of films negatives and celluloid.
With a frontispiece photographic portrait of Charles Pathé.
Skilfully restored brown half sheepskin publisher's binding, smooth spine decorated with golden arabesques, small gaps filled at head of spine, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
"In the early years of the twentieth century, the largest film production company was the Société Pathé Frères (Pathé Brothers Company). Founded in 1897, the company was at its height in 1920s when it unveiled the first home movie projector, the Pathé Baby. [Le Film vierge Pathé] is one of the company's first publications explaining the secrets of processing 'virgin' film. Plates offer incredible images of the mass production of thousands of silent movies, including the first newsreels, sports films, and animation. 107 examples of actual celluloid color film have been mounted in each volume." (Princeton University Library, Julie L. Mellby)
First edition, one of 20 numbered copies on hollande, the only deluxe issue (grand papier) after 10 copies on japon.
Bound in gray half morocco in panels, smooth spine, gilt date at foot, abstract decorative paper boards, black onionskin pastedowns and flyleaves, original wrappers preserved, pastedown bookplate, top deckled edge gilt, binding signed Boichot.
Small tears with small lacks of paper to the margin of an endpaper and on the front cover.
The work is dedicated to Paul Verlaine who wrote the preface "which was a way of advertising to gay readers" (Graham Robb, Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century, p. 210).
Precious signed and inscribed copy to Catulle Mendès who will go on to write six years later "the first description of a male homosexual orgasm" (Graham Robb) in his novel La Maison de la Vieille.
This novel, although still tinged with a moralistic, guilt-ridden view of homosexuality, features the first gay sex scene in a French novel. It takes place near the Opera, in a palatial Turkish bath house, one of Paris' most famous cruising spots at the time when the influence of the Arabian Nights and the prospect of hedonistic pleasures were all the rage: "In this overheated atmosphere, Jacques savors the pleasures of body reflection and massage. Then comes the 'unpleasant brusqueness of the shower' before entering the steam bath, where several bodies lie naked and immodest. Suddenly, a young man of twenty appears with 'an aristocratic bearing, a blond head, the fat, bulging chest of the Capitoline Antinous statue'. It was love at first sight. Jacques looks out for him, follows him 'panting' and thus succumbs to 'unnatural vice'" (François Buot, Gay Paris, Une histoire du Paris interlope entre 1900 et 1940).
Neil Bartlett even suggests Oscar Wilde might have read the novel based on the plea he wrote to the Home Secretary from Reading Gaol, which features a similar description of his erotomania (Paul Hallam, The Book of Sodom, 1993).
This deluxe copy is exceptionally inscribed to Catulle Mendès, who also pioneered the writing of novels centered around gay and lesbian protagonists.
Provenance: library of Comte René Philipon, specialist in occult sciences, collector, entomologist and patron of the arts, with his pastedown bookplate featuring the Rosicrucian symbol of the Phoenix rising from the ashes.
An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality, II, 6694.
First edition, one of 25 numbered copies on pure laid paper, the only large paper copies.
Autograph presentation inscription dated and signed by Charles de Gaulle: "Pour J. Emery, bien cordialement ! C. de Gaulle. 25.2.61."
A fine and rare large paper copy with autograph presentation inscription signed by Charles de Gaulle.
First edition, one of 75 numbered copies on surfine colored paper.
Work illustrated with 3 aquatints by Mimi Parent.
One scratch with three light stains on the first cover.
Handsome copy.
Precious and surrealist autograph inscription signed by José Pierre to Marie Cermínová Toyen: "A Toyen, les violons monégasques fabriqués secrètement dans les presbytères en partant de l'anémone de mer, José." (To Toyen, the Monégasque violins secretly manufactured in presbyteries starting from the sea anemone, José.)
Signatures of José Pierre and Mimi Parent below the justification page.
First edition entirely hand-painted by Jacques Capdeville and printed in 30 numbered copies on vellum, with a small number of hors-commerce copies also issued.
Rare and fine copy, complete with its full flexible paperboard slipcase and with the musical setting of the poem by John Supko, on tracing paper.
Handwritten signatures of Philippe Denis and Jacques Capdeville in the colophon.
First edition illustrated with 12 full-page plates by Françoise Gilot, one of only 115 numbered copies on Arches vellum, the deluxe issue.
Our copy is indeed accompanied by an original lithograph by Françoise Gilot on a separate leaf.
A very good copy.
Paul Éluard’s handwritten signature on the limitation page, lightly and partially shaded as on the facing page.
First edition of the French translation, one of only 34 numbered copies printed on pure vellum paper, the sole deluxe paper issue.
A fine and rare copy.
First edition in book form, issued for the centenary of the birth of Pierre Jean Jouve; one of 33 numbered copies on pure wove vellum, the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.
First edition.
Our copy is preserved in its original plain pink paper waiting wrappers.
Ink annotations to the front cover, a few short tears; internally a clean and agreeable copy.
As it was never ratified, this concordat never came into effect, and France therefore remained under the regime of the Concordat of 1801 until the Law on the Separation of Church and State in 1905.
First public edition of this text written under the pseudonym François la Colère, one of 50 numbered copies on Madagascar paper, the deluxe issue.
Rare and fine copy.
First edition.
Spine and boards slightly and marginally faded.
A rare and pleasing copy.
First edition, limited to 59 numbered copies on Arches vellum, signed in pink pencil by André Masson beneath the limitation statement.
Rare and fine copy.
Illustrated with two original etchings by André Masson, printed full-bleed and issued hors texte.
Pirate edition from the same year as the first edition of this bible of chess strategy, published by Philidor at the age of twenty-two.
Full olive morocco binding, dentelle boards framed by a gilt roulette motif, central gilt decoration in mandorla shape composed of a quatrefoil formed by basket-handle motifs richly decorated in gilt inside the lobes, gilt edges, top spine-end slightly rubbed, corners bumped, some rare spots of foxing, binding attributable to René-François Fétil, pupil of the great Padeloup, based on numerous tools found on bindings bearing Fétil's ticket and listed in Giles Barber, The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor. Printed Books and Bookbindings, 2013 (DCT 38 "Long, cornet-shaped ornament with a floral top", FR 16 "pair of fronds with a large double-sided base leaf and two smaller leaves above; plain curl end").
The greatest chess treatise, in an elegant dentelle binding, from the library of the famous chess player Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster and arbiter of the century, holder of the largest and most prestigious private chess book collection in the world (according to Allan Savage, Caissa's Legacy: The Great Chess Libraries).
First edition.
Minor foxing, a pleasing copy.
The Roman jeweller Alessandro Castellani (1823–1883) was also an enlightened collector of ancient and medieval artefacts, from which he sometimes drew inspiration for his jewellery designs.
Jean de Witte (1808–1889), archaeologist and numismatist, became a member of the Institut in 1886.
Rare and important first edition.
Our copy is sold unbound. A minor worm-trail on all leafs' heads, not affecting text.
The work describes the dress, headdress, arsenal and equipment of soldiers and officers of the French army; it also addresses the cavalry, dragoons, and hussars.
The chapter devoted to the distinctive uniform of each regiment includes a list of these regiments, some of which took part in the American Revolutionary War.
First edition of the French translation by Edouard Chavannes of an extract from the Journal of the Peking oriental society.
Contemporary Bradel-style binding in full grey percaline, smooth spine decorated with a gilt fleur-de-lis, double gilt fillet at the foot, cherry shagreen lettering-piece with surface scuffing, partially toned endpapers.
This was the translator’s first scholarly publication devoted to this treatise, which forms the twenty-eighth chapter of the celebrated Shiji (Historical Records) by the first true Chinese historian, Sima Qian (145–86 BCE).
These records constitute the first systematic synthesis of Chinese history and served as the model for all subsequent dynastic annals.
The great sinologist Edouard Chavannes (1865–1918), who lived in China from 1889 to 1893, was moreover the first to undertake a complete translation of the Shiji (five volumes published between 1895 and 1905, unfortunately covering only 47 of the 130 sections of the original work).
Copy enriched with a signed presentation inscription to Georges Cogordan (1849–1904), French Minister Plenipotentiary in Peking from 1885 to 1894.
Rare first edition of this small practical Malagasy–English lexicon compiled by the Protestant missionary Joseph Stickney Sewell (1819–1900), who was active in Madagascar between 1867 and 1876; although a Quaker, he was employed by the Anglican London Missionary Society.
No copy recorded in the CCF. Absent from Grandidier (who nevertheless cites other works by the author).
Publisher’s modest brick-coloured half-cloth binding, smooth spine without lettering, title blocked on the upper board, with light spotting and staining to the boards.
Title page and final endpaper toned,
First edition, illustrated with five engraved plates (see Crowley 894; David 258; Poletti 182).
Scattered foxing, otherwise a pleasing copy.
Contemporary half sheep, the flat spine gilt with decorative rolls and small tools, black morocco lettering-piece, headcap worn, some rubbing to spine and joints, marbled paper boards.
"… Serres did research into the development of the bones and teeth…" (D.S.B., XII, 315).
First edition of the French translation prepared by J. de Rey-Pailhade and Henry-Joseph Sauvaire, issued in a small printing as an offprint from the Journal asiatique.
A few small spots of foxing; a pleasing and uncommon copy.
Half green cloth, smooth spine with red morocco title-label, ‘œil-de-chat’ patterned paper over boards, sprinkled edges.
Illustrated with two double-page plates outside the text.
Born in Marseille, Henri Sauvaire (1831–1896) began his career in the consular service before turning to Near-Eastern archaeology.
On the half-title, a presentation inscription in the hand of Henri-Joseph Sauvaire to the archaeologist Alban-Emmanuel Guillaume-Rey (1837–1916), a specialist in medieval Syria.
Very rare devotional work, for which no bibliographical information could be traced.
Not recorded in Hage Chahine, Blackmer, or Atabey.
Full brown calf binding, spine with four raised bands gilt-ruled and richly gilt-panelled, brown calf lettering-piece, contemporary binding.
Some restorations to the spine and joints, spotting to the edges.
First edition of a poetry collection printed in a very small number of copies.
No copy recorded in the CCF. A single copy held in WorldCat (National Library of Australia).
Light, scattered foxing.
Half brown percaline Bradel binding, smooth spine, date and place gilt at the foot of the spine, marbled paper boards, original wrappers preserved, corners slightly rubbed, contemporary binding.
First edition (only three copies recorded in the CCFr: BnF, Lyon and Montpellier).
Blank spine split with small losses, a few instances of foxing.
The sole edition of this small, learned and appealing dissertation.
Paul Saint-Olive (1799–1879), engraver and contributor to the Revue du Lyonnais, was a tireless seeker of curiosities (cf. Vingtrinier (Aimé): Paul Saint-Olive, archéologue lyonnais, Lyon, 1877).
Signed autograph inscription by Paul Saint-Olive to Doctor Girard on the inside of the upper cover.
First edition.
Our copy is preserved in its original wrappers beneath a plain cover, the spine split with losses to the paper and the title label also with defects.
Pleasing condition internally, with only occasional foxing.
Among the finest works relating to naval medicine; a substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.
The author, a physician in the Dutch navy, composed this work entirely from his own firsthand observations.
A substantial section (pp. 90–212) is devoted to scurvy.
First edition of one of the many productions of an odontological charlatan (cf. David, p. 245).
Illustrated with a portrait of the author as frontispiece.
Spine clumsily restored with an adhesive repair and showing small losses; corner losses to the boards; foxing.
Born into a Dutch Jewish family, Benjamin Cohen (1818–1852) adopted an Anglicised pseudonym in order to facilitate his business dealings, passing himself off as a London practitioner holding a degree from the University of Edinburgh, where he claimed to have been "admitted" in 1833. In reality, he had undertaken no formal studies.
Nevertheless, he set himself up as a dentist in Paris in 1836. Lacking any recognised qualification, he was convicted at first instance (December 1845) and on appeal (February 1846) for the illegal practice of medicine, following a complaint brought against him by Joseph Audibran and several other members of the Société de chirurgie dentaire de Paris. This judgment was, however, quashed in May 1846, the Court of Cassation ruling that the practice of dentistry did not constitute medicine so long as it did not extend to the treatment of diseases of the mouth.
Second edition, revised and expanded (see Backer & Sommervogel VI, 1557). Only three copies recorded in the CCFr (BnF, Dijon and Nîmes).
Contemporary full mottled calf, spine with five raised bands and richly gilt compartments, modern burgundy morocco lettering-piece, some rubbing to spine and joints, headcaps trimmed, triple gilt fillet frame on boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, bookplate pasted to one pastedown.
The first edition of this small universal calendar appeared in 1711 in the form of a folio broadside.
Each subsequent issue expanded the content: the 1731 edition was intended to serve as a supplement to the large Calendrier published by Rollin in the same year.
Born in Aire, Rebecque (1663–1753) was chiefly a preacher and confined his activity to his native regions (Aire, Douai, Saint-Omer, etc.).
A second text is bound after the first, by the same author: "Calendrier du monde, où l'on donne une méthode très-aisée de trouver à chaque année depuis 1741, jusqu'à l'an 2244 de Jésus-Christ, tout l'ordre des tems, avec la plus grande exactitude pour les royaumes & les peuples qui ont reçu la Réformation grégorienne : et de trouver même pour chaque mois dans si long espace de tems, les nouvelles lunes & leurs phases, aussi exactement qu'il est nécessaire pour les usages de la vie civile", printed at Aire by H. F. Boubert de Corbeville in 1742 (title, vi pp., 68 pp.). Backer & Sommervogel VI, 1558.
First edition: the work forms the natural complement to the preceding title (see Backer & Sommervogel VI, 1558).
Provenance: from the library of Emmanuel Jeanbernat Barthélémy de Ferrari Doria, with his armorial bookplate pasted to one pastedown.
Rare first edition, limited to 50 copies.
A single copy recorded in the CCF (BnF).
Contemporary cream boards, smooth spine, the original printed front wrapper preserved and mounted on the upper cover.
Spine split, boards darkened, clean and pleasant internal condition.
The Toulon scholar Pons (1789–1836) is known both for his studies on the history of his native city and for his research in numismatics (a substantial portion of his posthumous manuscripts was devoted to this field).
On the title page, a signed autograph presentation inscription from Ange-Thomas-Zénon Pons to the celebrated archaeologist and epigraphist Jean-Antoine Letronne (1787–1848), with his ink stamp alongside.
Rare first edition.
Our copy is preserved disbound.
The sole edition of this uncommon pamphlet issued in the context of the Russian Campaign: "Ce Précis historique sur les Cosaques ne pouvait paraître dans une circonstance plus favorable que dans le moment où la Russie est devenue le théâtre de la guerre".
The son of the Paris bookseller Noël-Jacques Pissot (1724–1804), Noël-Laurent Pissot (1748–1815) at first followed in his father’s footsteps: admitted to the booksellers’ guild on 19 April 1768, he worked chiefly in partnership with him and specialised in the publication and sale of works in English or translated from the English. From July 1797 he was, together with his father, employed at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, and from 1802 onwards he published numerous historical works and essays, novels, melodramas, and political pamphlets, notably of an anti-Bonapartist nature.
Extremely rare first edition, illustrated with two plates and issued as a separate offprint from the Phytographia Canariensis of the Histoire naturelle des Îles Canaries by Barker-Webb and Sabin Berthelot.
The plates, lithographed by J. Rigaud et Cie, were drawn by Alfred Riocreux, the gifted botanical artist and pupil of Redouté, responsible, among other works, for Choix de plantes de la Nouvelle-Zélande (1846).
Some foxing.
Contemporary binding in red half-morocco with corners, smooth spine ruled in gilt at head and foot, long-grained title, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Not recorded by Nissen.
The Vicomte de Noé, a botanist about whom little is known, was one of the founding members of the Société botanique de France, established in 1854.
Different issue from the one dated An XI (1803), which itself is not firmly established as the true first edition (cf. Monglond VI 139–140; Quérard VI 326).
The work is illustrated with an etched frontispiece entitled « Frémissez ! voilà du joueur le sort inévitable !! » depicting a gambler blowing his brains out in a gaming room, amid general indifference.
Our copy is preserved in its original publisher’s wrappers, with a blank marbled paper provisional cover showing small losses at the corners.
A pleasing copy.
Extremely rare collection of three works, in original anonymous editions, devoted to the Eastern Question and the policy France should adopt to counter Russian ambitions in the Ottoman Empire.
The author is believed to be one Mignonneau, a former war commissioner.
Bound in full mottled calf, smooth spine richly decorated with gilt crossbands, brown calf title label, rubbing to joints and spine, gilt roll partially faded on head and tail, triple gilt fillet framing boards, handmade paper endpapers and pastedowns, gilt turn-ins, corners slightly worn, all edges gilt, contemporary binding.
Minor angular losses to boards, light dampstaining to lower margin of leaves in the second work.
The set comprises the following:
1) "Considérations politiques, par M.***"
(S.l., 1783, title and 77 pp. First edition. (cf. Conlon 83: 1465. N.U.C.: NM 567505.))
2) "Ces réflexions devoient, avec beaucoup d'autres, faire suite aux Considérations politiques ; mais le tout n'étant pas encore rédigé, les circonstances du moment m'ont déterminé à faire paroître celles-ci sur-le-champ."
S.l.n.d. [c. 1783], 44 pp. with simple title. First edition. (cf. Conlon 83: 1464 locates no copies in France. N.U.C. locates only one copy at the Library of Congress. The RLG Union Catalog mentions another at the University of Chicago.)
The first half of this work is devoted to the invasion of Crimea, the second to Russia's claims regarding the "etiquette of the court" governing international relations and their true significance.
3) "Lettre à M. le Comte de ***, octobre 1784".
S.l.n.d. [c. 1784], title and 49 pp. First edition. (cf. Conlon 84: 1533 locates no copies in France. N.U.C. mentions only the copy at the Library of Congress.)
This third work denounces Russia's expansionist policy. The author reveals, among other things, Catherine II's designs on Armenia and also discusses the potential interest Turkey might have in liberating Greece.
Second edition: the work had in fact already been published in 1741 at Halle under the more concise title Syriasmus.
Contemporary half vellum with vellum corners, the flat spine gilt ruled and decorated with gilt Greek-key rolls and floral tools, bronze sheep lettering-piece, a gilt cross stamped at the centre of the upper cover, sprinkled edges; corners a little rubbed. A binding of the period.
Numbering in blue ink at the head of the front endpaper.
The Lutheran theologian Christian Benedikt Michaelis (1680–1764) specialised in Oriental languages (Arabic, Geʽez, Syriac, etc.), as did many of his contemporaries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A member of the Collegium Orientale founded by Francke in 1702, he had a son, Johann David Michaelis (1717–1791), who followed in his footsteps—and indeed far surpassed him in the scope of his scholarship—and likewise composed a Syriac grammar which should not be confused with the present work.
First edition.
Small losses to the head and tail of the spine, tears to one joint and to the spine neatly restored, a stain at the foot of the upper cover, slight corner losses to the boards; a clean and attractive copy internally.
At the head of the upper cover, an autograph presentation inscription by Édouard Maurel to a colleague.
Rare first edition of the doctoral thesis by Alexandre Marié (only two copies recorded in the CCFr: Montpellier and the BIUM).
A small nick to the left margin of the upper wrapper, which also bears a small stain; slight marginal tears to the wrappers without seriousness; occasional light foxing.
Presentation inscription signed by Alexandre Marié to Louis Alfred Becquerel at the head of the upper wrapper.
Provenance: copy of Louis Alfred Becquerel (1814–1862), eldest son of Antoine Becquerel and a physician, with the author’s signed presentation inscription. He published in 1853 Des applications de l'électricité à la thérapeutique médicale.
First edition describing 554 entries (this list was later revised in 1935 and again in 1943).
Spine and covers slightly and marginally faded, a tear to the head of the spine.
A copy complete with the inserted two-leaf addenda.
From 1893 to 1953, the year preceding his death, Auguste Lumière published no fewer than 62 major works and 784 scientific articles, particularly in the fields of medicine and biology.
Rare first edition of this curious work recalling the voluntary exile to Jersey of the man of letters Auguste Luchet (1806–1872).
Only two copies recorded in the Catalogue collectif de France (BnF and Avranches).
From 1842 to 1847 the author chose to leave France rather than serve the two-year prison sentence to which he had been condemned: his novel "Le Nom de famille" had led him to appear, together with his publisher Hippolyte Souverain, before the Assize Court jury on 10 March 1842 for "excitation à la haine et au mépris du gouvernement et provocation à la haine de classes".
Slight corner losses to spine and boards, without consequence; faint water-stain on the opening leaves.
Vezry rare first edition.
Jesuit library stamp to the half-title, a few minor spots of foxing, slight tears to the head and tail of the spine.
Rare first edition of this work by the author, one of 150 numbered copies on antique paper, the only issue after three deluxe copies.
Some light foxing.
No copies recorded in the CCF. Only three copies listed in WorldCat.
This slender booklet brings together pieces belonging to the earliest poetic experiments of Félix-Conrad Laventure (1902–1995), who was also known for his political career in ministerial, legal, legislative and municipal life (he served as Mayor of Port-Louis and as a minister).
His first verses appeared in 1921 (in Le Mauricien and L'Essor, of which he later became editor, and where in 1924 he published a critical study of the works of Mallarmé).
First edition of this rare offprint from the "Revue médicale et journal de clinique"
A single copy recorded in the CCFr (BnF).
Bradel binding in full boards covered with dark blue marbled paper, red shagreen spine label, pasted ex-libris on the inside board; modern binding signed Lobstein-Laurenchet.
Jean-Louis Lassaigne (1800–1859) taught chemistry at the Veterinary School of Alfort until 1854 and devoted particular attention to the medical applications of chemistry.
Bound at the end, by the same author: "Mémoire sur la possibilité de reconnaître, par les moyens chimiques, la présence de l'acétate de morphine chez les animaux empoisonnés par cette substance vénéneuse" N.p., n.d. [Paris, 1824], 12 pp.
Some foxing.
At the head of the first fascicule, an autograph inscription signed by Jean-Louis Lassaigne to the members of the Société de pharmacie de Paris.
Very rare fully mimeographed first edition of this course prepared for officers of the French Army of the Levant, issued locally under the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon.
No copy recorded in the CCF. Not in Hage Chahine.
Minor marginal tears to the wrappers, a manuscript ex-libris on the upper wrapper, and a hole in the lower wrapper also affecting the final page but not the text.
The Belgian Jesuit and orientalist Henri Lammens (1862–1937) spent almost his entire life in Beirut; he was the first to apply to the study of the origins of Islam a critical method as rigorous as that used for any historical subject, which earned him much hostility and repeated cautions from his superiors.
As a result, his major biography of Muhammad, completed as early as 1914, remained in manuscript.
Second edition, illustrated with a large folding plate bringing together five figures (referred to as “plates”).
Our copy is preserved in its original stitched wrappers, in the blank provisional waiting cover, with manuscript annotations in ink on the upper cover.
Two faint waterstains, one at the foot of the first page and the other at the head of the last.
The author, formerly florist-gardener on the Brunoy estates of Monsieur (Louis XVIII), was at the time a nurseryman at Mandres [les-Roses].
Rare first edition of this fervent—indeed visionary—appeal to bring the Orient under the sway of the combined powers of the State and the Christian religion, informed by such an overtly Eurocentric outlook that the work is almost unreadable today, yet remains an eloquent record of the illusions prevailing in the West in the mid-nineteenth century.
Corners restored at the outer tips of the boards, some scattered foxing, and a stain to the right margin of the upper cover.
In an admirably prophetic vein, the author exclaims: "La civilisation chrétienne, qui ne cesse d'agrandir son cercle, ne s'arrêtera pas devant le Coran, et ce n'est pas la loi de Mahomet qui présidera au réveil de l'Orient".
At the head of the upper wrapper, a signed presentation inscription from Louis de Juvigny to the mystical polemicist Ernest Hello (1828–1885), then the darling of the most uncompromising and exalted Catholic circles (Léon Bloy owed his conversion to him, which says it all…).
First edition of this biblical poem later set to music by Mondonville (cf. Barbier II, 970; Cioranescu 63676).
Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville (1711–1772), violinist, conductor and composer, wrote several operas, oratorios and pastorals, as well as works for harpsichord and sacred music.
He directed the Concert spirituel between 1755 and 1762.
Claude-Henri de Fusée de Voisenon (170–1775), a friend of Voltaire, a familiar figure in the salons and much in favour with Madame de Pompadour, was elected to the Académie française in 1762.
He left a body of dramatic works, novels and tales.
A date inscribed at the head of the title-page, which shows small spots at the foot; ink stains in the right-hand margin of the final leaf; a pleasing copy.
First edition, printed in a small number of copies, of this offprint from the Mémoires de la Société naturelle des sciences naturelles de Cherbourg, vol. XX (1876).
See O'Reilly, Tahiti, 2693. Only three copies recorded in the CCF (BnF, Aix-Marseille, Cherbourg).
Bradel binding in blue half cloth, smooth spine, long red marbled morocco title label, marbled paper sides, original wrappers preserved, modern signed binding by Boichot.
This pamphlet, which contains a large number of botanical entries on the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, etc., is a continuation of the study entitled Les Plantes alimentaires de l'Océanie (1875).
A rare and pleasing copy.
Second edition, largely original in its own right as it was substantially enlarged, to which was added a "Lettre sur l'instruction des aveugles", addressed to the author in 1816 by Mr Isaac Roquès of Montauban, himself blind, together with a selection of his poems.
Our copy is preserved in its plain grey temporary wrappers, the spine faded and showing small losses.
The first edition had been issued at the same Montauban address in Year VI of the Republican calendar.
First edition.
The CCF records only the minutes of the sessions of December 1787 and January 1788, published at Narbonne (Veuve Besset).
A very rare report of the first sitting of the provincial assembly of Roussillon, held in three sessions (20, 21 & 22 October 1787), preliminary to the sessions of the following December and January, but apparently overlooked by most historians.
First edition (see Cioranescu, XVIII, 13 365).
Contemporary full speckled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with gilt fleurons, faded gilt roll tooling to the headcaps, a scratch at the head of the spine, gilt fillets to the edges partially faded, corners rubbed, speckled edges; binding of the period.
The sole edition of the author’s only work, written by the prior of Saint-Didier-en-Bourbonnais [Saint-Didier-la-Forêt], about whom little else is known.
A very concise overview of the events of each ecumenical council, from Nicaea I onwards.
First edition, issued in a very small number as an offprint from the Bulletins de la Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, t. CXCI et CXCII.
Not recorded by Quérard.
The pamphlet is illustrated with three folding technical plates, engraved by Normand fils.
Bradel binding in paper-covered boards entirely clad in blue paper, with a black vertical spine label showing minor losses; a modern binding.
The work describes the apparatus devised by the chocolatier Auger, which made it possible to reduce any animal, vegetable or mineral substance to "poussières impalpables, aériformes ou éthérées".
Héricart de Thury, Chief Engineer in the Royal Corps of Mines, also sets out the various applications of this machine in medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, painting, dyeing, and related fields.
First edition.
Minor marginal tears to the boards, a few spots of foxing.
Not recorded by Sabin.
First edition, illustrated at the end of the volume with a folding plate entitled "Système dentaire des oiseaux" (see Crowley 916; David, p. 127; Poletti 90).
Occasional light foxing; a tear along the left margin of the plate not touching the engraved figures.
Contemporary half tawny calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt tools and fillets; a restored snag at the head of the spine, which also shows some rubbing; marbled paper boards, marbled edges.
First edition.
Minor losses at head and foot of the spine, which is slightly sunned; a few small spots of foxing.
Alongside a distinguished career in the colonial troops, in Senegal and Indochina, General Henri Frey (1847–1932) also cultivated literary and scholarly ambitions. This unusual thesis was, of course, neither substantiated nor taken up subsequently …
On the upper margin of the half-title, an autograph inscription by Henri Frey to Commandant Étienne Lunet de Lajonquières [here spelled Jonquières] (1861–1933), of the Marine Infantry, archaeologist and ethnographer, and also a key figure in the organisation of the preservation of Historical Monuments in Indochina.
Second edition, partly original, as it was revised, corrected and enlarged with a handbook for the cultivation of mulberry trees, setting out the principles by which the fullest advantage may be drawn from this tree, together with the presentation of a new method of cultivation designed to prevent its mortality.
Light dampstaining to the upper outer margin of the first leaves, small losses to the head- and tail-cap of the spine, a few scattered spots.
The work was reissued in 1837 and 1848.
Charles Fraissinet (1798–1856) was a pastor of the Reformed Church at Sauve (Gard).
Although closely involved in the theological controversies of his day, he is best remembered for his commitment to sericulture and for publishing several pamphlets on the subject, notably the present Guide du magnanier.
A silkworm breeder himself, he devised a method for obtaining “les œufs de vers à soie à leur plus haut point de perfection”.
This activity even appears to have tempered the mutual belligerence of the pastor and the parish priest of Sauve, since, in the prospectus for this method, Curé Bernard—his sworn enemy—nonetheless made it “un devoir d’engager tous les sériciculteurs à se procurer sans retard la méthode de M. Fraissinet”.
First edition, illustrated with four plates, three of them folding (cf. Cordier, Sinica 442).
Losses to the head and tail of the spine, marginal tears to the covers, a light dampstain to the lower portion of the upper board, one plate torn across the centre without affecting the images,
Text of the lecture delivered on 13 December 1878 before the North-China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Albert-Auguste Fauvel (1851–1909), a naval officer, accompanied the Duc de Penthièvre on his voyage around the world (1866–1867).
A graduate in Manchu, he had held a post since 1872 within the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs Service.
A naturalist, he devoted himself to the study of the fauna and flora of the Chusan Islands, off Ning-Po (Numa Broc). He was also a gifted economist.
Very rare first edition, illustrated with an inserted copper-engraved plate by Plée after Turpin (cf. Pritzel 2823).
The CCFr records copies only at the Institut, Rouen, and Montpellier.
Our copy is preserved in its original sewn state with temporary pink paper covers.
Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741–1819) is of course best known as a geologist and vulcanologist, yet his work extended to every other branch of natural history.
First edition, illustrated with a double-page folding map composed of seventeen plates, together with twelve figures in the text (cf. Hague Chahine 1504.).
Bradel binding in half glazed brown cloth, smooth spine with the date gilt at the foot, red shagreen title-label showing minor surface marks, stone-patterned paper boards, corners lightly rubbed; a contemporary binding.
Some scattered foxing.
Account of an archaeological mission including an extensive study of Safaitic inscriptions, with a glossary and an index of proper names.
