Sciences et lettres au Moyen-âge et à l'époque de la Renaissance

First edition, magnificently illustrated with 13 chromolithographs and 400 wood engravings in-text. Publisher's binding in its most luxurious version by Lenègre in half red shagreen richly decorated with a Souze plate, a plate also found on the red shagreen-textured percaline boards; binding evoking the rich Renaissance bindings of Grolier type. Gilt edges. Minor rubbing at foot. Very handsome copy, with some scattered foxing in the margins. The interest of the work manifests itself both through its erudition and its accessibility and readability (historical anecdotes...). We owe it to Paul Jacob, who was a great bibliophile, writer and scholar, and keeper of the Arsenal library. If the entire series has become a great classic in the field, it is because it successfully combines the work of publisher, printer, bookbinder, historian, illustrators, and documentation, and few books have ultimately achieved this amalgamation that we owe to Firmin-Didot, at a time when books had become quite mediocre. One will note the presence in the sciences of the study of alchemy and occult sciences, and a chapter on heraldry.