“The most considerable of the publications of the reign of Louis XIV” (Louis Réau)
Les Hommes Illustres Qui Ont Paru En France pendant ce Siecle: Avec leurs Portraits au naturel. Par Mr. [Charles] Perrault, de l'Academie Francoise. Paris: Antoine Dezallier, 1696-1700, two vols in one, folio.
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FIRST EDITION FIRST ISSUE of Charles Perrault's Les Hommes Illustres, forming his famous survey of important men of 17th century France. This copy is complete with both volumes bound into one, housed in an attractive modern fine half morocco binding. Complete with all 102 very finely engraved portraits and the two frontispieces, one of which is a portrait of the author. This is the rare earliest issue which includes the portraits of Blaise Pascal and Antoine Arnauld which were later removed because of Jansenist censorship, subsequently replaced by Thomasson and Du Cange.
The portraits in this book are of the highest quality. 47 of them are the work of Gérard Edelinck who was intended to engrave all of them, but he was very expensive - one plate engraved by him at the time cost almost as much as a Rigaud portrait. The other portraits are signed Jacques Lubin, P. van Schuppen, A. Duflos and Robert Nanteuil. The portraits genuinely capture not just the likeness of the subjects, but their characters. Notably, this book includes the only portrait presumed to be authentic of Molière (after Mignard).
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Size: 300 x 441 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[(2), frontis, frontis, a4, 102pp, a2, 102pp, 1ff, (2)]
Modern half morocco over marbled paper backed boards, externally fine condition, very attractive indeed. Both boards securely attached, the binding is secure, and stands without shelf lean. Modern blanks. No attached bookplates or ownership inscriptions. Exceptionally bright and clean throughout the text block, some sporadic mild toning and extremely minor dampstaining. The full text is legible without loss of sense. Collates as complete textually and with all called for plates present, some slightly misbound in intended chronology as typical. Essentially a fine copy.
