Romances

New illustrated edition of these Romances. One frontispiece and 13 unsigned figures, and 44 pages of engraved music. Printed on heavy laid paper.
Contemporary full tree-calf binding. Smooth spine decorated with arabesques and fleurons. Triple fillet border on covers. All edges gilt. Handsome copy. Light rubbing to corners and joints.
Berquin's poetry enjoyed immense success, and was consequently qualified as popular, while it perfectly reflects European literature of the late 18th century, and one sometimes feels the first Romanticism coming from Germany and England. Some poems are dark and theatrical, full of Gothic reminiscences: « Sous la tour du château s'ouvre une enceinte affreuse/ Où jamais n'a percé le jour/ Les flots d'une vapeur infecte et ténébreuse/ Inondent cet impur séjour. » (Under the castle tower opens a dreadful enclosure/ Where daylight has never pierced/ The waves of an infected and dark vapor/ Flood this impure dwelling.) After devoting himself to poetry, Berquin (1747-1791) was the first French author to specialize in children's literature. The music pages are by Cousin-Jacques, a columnist of the period. On the endpaper, manuscript gift inscription: A Claire de Caperoy.