The Library of the Arsenal will host Friday, March 20, 2015 a study day devoted to Paul Lacroix, more often known under the pseudonym of bibliophile Jacob.

This event is a unique opportunity to discover the life and works of one of the most famous bibliographers nineteenth century.

What are the slice, flat, back, nerves, jaw, slices of a binder?

Felicity Lott, classic English soprano singer, Francophone and Francophile, and Jacqueline Bourgès, his musical accomplice, chose the most beautiful melodies to illustrate the Proustian genius.

Alain Square, actor-director, wrote the show from Marcel Proust texts.

A first edition is the first text print in a given state. Is the first impression of a work. It is sought after by collectors, bibliophiles, for its rarity, specific characteristics and quality of his condition.

Vellum, calf, morocco, grief, sheepskin .... Jansenist to the band, the grotesque ... Full, half, with corners ... percaline ... signed or not, much of expression that may qualify a binder.

Le Littre laconically defines bibliophile like "love of books."

An autograph is a handwritten message affixed by an author on a copy of one of his works. It can be specifically addressed to the near of the author, a colleague, and signed or not. Sometimes it is decorated with a drawing (Cocteau), a collage (Prévert) ...

The classic definition is that a former book is simply a book that was printed before 1851. But today the term refers to a larger reality: it denotes any rare book, more or less valuable, which not in a traditional library but in "antiquarian booksellers."