Les saints Evangiles

First edition of the Gospels in the translation by Pierre Dassance, illustrated with a chromolithographed frontispiece after a drawing by Langlois, engraved by Cyprien Jacquemin, an engraved title-page for each Gospel by Brevière, twelve steel-engraved plates after drawings by Tony Johannot, two hand-coloured maps, and ten engravings after drawings by Charles Marville on chine. Numerous ornamental borders, tailpieces, headpiece vignettes and initials. The frontispiece and the vignette with the initial letter on page IX of the first volume are gilt and hand-coloured.

Publisher's bindings in full long-grain midnight-blue morocco, covers blind-stamped, gilt central plaques on each cover, one signed by G. Thévenon, gilt border, smooth spine with gilt motifs, gilt title and volume number, gilt fillet to the board edges, gilt ornaments to the headcaps, gilt roll to the turn-ins, moiré-paper doublures, gilt edges. Light rubbing to the leather, corners rubbed, some foxing, loosend leaves at the beginning of the second volume.

A richly illustrated edition of the Gospels in two volumes, with a preliminary discourse by Bossuet and an extensive section devoted to the history and geography of the Holy Land. The work is among the earliest publications of Léon Curmer (1801-1870), who had only recently established himself as a publisher, and remains one of the most characteristic books of French typographic Romanticism: the text is illustrated with wood-engraved borders after Cavelier père, a separate frontispiece for each evangelist, historiated initials and headpieces, steel-engraved plates after Tony Johannot, and wood-engraved views of Palestine after Marville, printed on chine. Curmer's editions of this type were designed to receive gilding and colours, the extent of which varies considerably from copy to copy: this copy shows the frontispiece, as well as the headpiece and initial of the preliminary discourse gilt and highlighted with paint.

This copy is rare on more than one count: preserved in its publisher's binding, it also bears a plaque signed by the designer, G. Thévenon. The tools and plaques ornamenting the covers of publisher's bindings were most often copied from an illustration in the work, or were the work of the engraver himself; the designer's name appears only very rarely, and chiefly on plaques of original design intended for fine editions. Sophie Malavieille, who established the reference corpus in this field, records only a small number of such names across the whole period, among them that of G. Thévenon, precisely for the year 1836 (S. Malavieille, Reliure et cartonnage d'éditeur en France au XIXe siècle, doctoral thesis, École des chartes, 1984). On our copy, this signature is located at the foot of the figure of Christ, on the front cover of the first volume.

A rare copy combining the publisher's binding with the signature of the designer of its plaque.