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BOOKS IN FRENCH
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Ideler, Julius Ludwig. Hermapion sive rudimenta hieroglyphicae veterum Aegyptiorum literaturae. Lipsiae: Fr. Chr. Guil. Vogelii, 1841. 4to (31 cm, 12.1"). x, 314, 75, [1], 15, [1], [77]–95, [11] pp.; 28 plts. (6 folding)
$575.00
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Uncommon sole edition of this treatise on hieroglyphics, part of the great 19th-century debate over ancient Egyptian language. The text is printed in Greek, Hebrew, and
French in addition to the predominant Latin and the hieroglyphic reproductions. 28 tipped-in plates, many of which are oversized and folded, provide illustrations of cartouches, hieroglyphs, and other characters; the text and plates were originally issued as two separate volumes, but are here bound in one.
Brunet, II, 402. Recent black moiré cloth, covers framed with blind roll; spine with gilt-stamped leather title, author, and publication labels. Title-page with early inked annotation to volume information. Some mild foxing, with a few leaves more heavily spotted; plates browned. Plate VII with outer edge cropped, with loss of some characters; plate V with short tear from inner margin.
Jacob, P.L. Les perles. Pièces d'écrin artistique et littéraire. Paris: Veuve Jules Renouard, 1867. Folio (35 cm, 13.75"). Add. engr. t.-p., [2], 81, [1] pp.; 22 plts.
$600.00
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Scarce, and
undescribed in any major database. Edited and contributed to by the prolific French author Paul Lacroix, best known as “Bibliophile Jacob,” this lovely collection of short stories, poems, and meditations by Lacroix, Balzac, Émile Délerot, Charles Nodier, et al. is illustrated with
22 large steel engravings done by J.C. Armytage, W. Greatbach, J.B. Allen, J.T. Willmore, F. Joubert, and others after designs by artists including Turner, Webster, etc.
Contemporary quarter morocco over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding lightly rubbed over sides and extremities. Front pastedown with small armorial bookplate. Front free endpaper and first few leaves separated. Occasional faint pencilled vocabulary annotations, in English. Scattered light spots of foxing, with most plates clean and untouched, a few showing some spotting in margins.

Ancient Cults in
Holy Scripture
Jurieu, Pierre. Histoire critique des dogmes et cultes, bons & mauvais, qui ont été dans l'Eglise depuis Adam jusqu'à Jesus-Christ, où l'on trouve l'origine de toutes les idolatries de l'ancien Paganisme, expliquées par rapport a celles des juifs, par Mr. Jurieu. [with Supplement, as below]. Amsterdam: Francois L'Honoré, & Compagnie, 1704. 4to (26 cm; 10.5"). Engr. title, [11] ff., 809, [1] pp., [15] ff. [bound and issued with] Supplement a l'histoire critique des dogmes et cultes, &c. Ou dissertation par lettre de Monsieur Cuper, Bourgemestre de Deventer, ci-devant Deputé aux Etats Generaux par la Province d'Overyssel, sur quelques passages du livre de Monsr. Jurieu. A Amsterdam: Francois L'Honoré, & Compagnie, 1705. 4to (26 cm; 10.5"). Frontis., 70 pp., [2 (ads)] ff.; 3 fold plts.
[SOLD]
First edition. Pierre Jurieu (1637–1713), a Calvinist theologian and spokesman for the French Huguenots during the reign of Louis XIV, here presents an exegesis of Hebrew and pagan cults as described in the Scriptures, in four parts with a supplement. The first part concerns Genesis and Exodus. The second treats the offices, ministries, ceremonies, and rites and ritual implements in Leviticus. Part three is subdivided into four traités, respectively, on pagan theology, the teraphim, simulacra, and the golden calf. The fourth part contains nine traités on the various pagan deities, and addresses topics such as temples, priestesses, sacrifices, and offerings.
The Supplement is printed in a different font and consists, in part, of correspondence between the author and Gisbert Cuper regarding the aforementioned work.
One topic of discussion concerns a prophecy (related by Jurieu) regarding the English succession, which is vividly illustrated on one of the folding plates. Two other folding plates appear in the Supplement, each being rich in symbolism.
The Histoire and the Supplement have their own title-pages, each with an engraved vignette and red and black lettering. Opposite each printed title-page is an engraving. That opposite the Histoire critique des dogmes et cultes is an added engraved title-page, while that opposite the Supplement is a frontispiece; however, both engravings are closely related and bear scenes from Genesis. The text is illustrated with engraved initials, and head- and tailpieces.
19th-century quarter sheep over marbled-paper boards, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt lettering and ornaments within “compartments”; binding a little chipped and abraded; ex-library with white-lettered call number at base of spine, institutional bookplate on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, rubber-stamp on title-page and several other pages, and inked numeral at base of p. [iii]. Top and bottom paper edges speckled blue. Interior generally clean, with light toning in some margins and occasional small spots of browning or foxing; light orange streaks to four pages of supplement and a small hole within text of pp. 149/150 costing two letters to each page, neither impeding reading. Several page corners chipped, and bottom edges of a few pages of the supplement a little ragged; plates clean and untattered. A solid, satisfying copy. (23743)
[Justel, Henri, ed.]. Recueil de divers voyages faits en Afrique et en l’Amerique, qui n’ont point esté encore publiez.... Paris: Louis Billaine, 1674. 4to (23.7 cm, 9.4"). á4ã4A–Z4Aa–Hh4 Ii2Kk4Ll21§–4§45§2 **A–**C4 a2b–g4 *A–*K4L2; [8] ff., 262, 35, [1 (blank)] 23, [1 (blank)], 49, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f., 81, [1 (blank)] pp., 3 fold. plans, 4 maps (3 fold.), 9 plts.
$6500.00
First edition of this collection of significant and interesting voyages, edited by a scholar and book collector who served in the employ of Louis XIV before being appointed Keeper of the King’s Library at St. James by Charles II. The compilation includes French-language travelogues of Barbados, the Nile River, Ethiopia, “l’Empire du Prète-Jean,” Guiana, Jamaica, and the English colonies, with illustrations including banana and palmetto trees, Caribbean pottery, and maps of New England, Jamaica (including Florida and the Antilles), and Barbados.
Some of both the voyages and the maps make their first published appearances here—among them the New England map depicting the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, engraved by R. Michault after one contained in Richard Blome’s Description of the Island of Jamaica, part of which work appears here translated into French.
Altogether, a volume notable both for its strong African and North American content and for the aesthetic appeal of its plates and pleasingly ornamented typography.

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Sabin
36944; Alden & Landis 674/159;
Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection 68; Baer, 17th-Century Maryland,
78. Recent 17th-century style mottled calf with covers framed in a gilt roll
and double-panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons,; spine
with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorative
devices. Several pages (not including title) and the versos of a few plates
stamped by a now-defunct institution. Paper slightly embrittled. Light waterstaining
to a number of leaves and plates, mostly in margins; the first map with two
repairs. One leaf (blank?) prior to Colonies Angloises excised; lacking the folding map of the Nile. A good
copy, in a handsome binding of recent vintage and contemporaneous style.

First French Koran — Pirated Edition
Koran. L'Alcoran de Mahomet. Traduit d'Arabe en François, par le Sieur du Ryer, Sieur de la Garde Malezair. A la Haye: Adrian Moetjens, 1683. 12mo (13.7 cm, 5.4"). Frontis., [10], 486, [4] pp.
$700.00
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Early reissue of an Elzevir edition of the first published French translation of the Koran, done by Orientalist and diplomat André du Ryer. Ryer's translation, originally published in 1647, was only the third western version and the first rendered from the original Arabic rather than the Latin.
This edition opens with a copper-engraved added title-page signed by J. Padebrugge; the main title-page bears the Elzevir sphere mark. Willems notes that it is “une copie exacte et ligne pour ligne de celle [the Elzevir edition] de 1672, dont en effect Moetjens s'était rendu adjudicataire, mais c'est positivement une réimpression.” It is, in effect, a
line-for-line piracy, and a handsome one faithful to its original's good qualities.
Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only eight U.S. holdings.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of collector Robert J. Hayhurst.
Brunet, III, 1309; Willems 1472. Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum remarkably clean. Original blue silk place marker present and intact. Front free endpaper with upper outer corner excised, mostly removing an early inked ownership inscription; title-page with early inked inscriptions lined through; back free endpaper with recent pencilled purchase record. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, just touching text without loss. Pages clean. A nice book. (25561)
La Baune, Jacques de. Panegyrici veteres. Parisiis: Simonem Benard, 1676. 4to (25 cm, 9.9"). ã4ē4ĩ4A–Z4Aa–Vv4Xx2a–u4 (-Xx2 [blank]); [12] ff., 350 (i.e., 346) pp., [80 (index)] ff. (frontis. lacking)
$150.00
First edition: La Baune’s edition of the twelve Latin Panegyrics, with his commentary. The work was printed as part of the great Delphin Classics series and was, as Sandys describes it, “the only distinctly scholarly edition” of that series.
The engraved title-page vignette here incorporates the Dauphin’s coat of arms and the French royal banner, while the headpiece on the next page depicts two cherubim wrestling with dolphins.
Binding: Contemporary speckled calf, spine overlaid some time ago with red morocco (to achieve a uniform appearance with other books in a previous owner’s library); spine with gilt-stamped leather title label and a similar series/date label (“In usum Delphini”). Raised bands, spine compartments, and head and foot bear gilt-stamped decorations
Brunet, IV, 342; Sandys, II, 292. Binding as above; boards very slightly warped, spine darkened and with small paper label, leather a bit rubbed at extremities and along spine. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate, old institutional rubber-stamp, and pencilled annotations; front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1892; title-page with small early ownership inscription. Frontispiece lacking. Some offsetting to margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled blue and red.
Lacombe, Albert. Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris. Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. [bound with his] Grammaire de la langue des Cris. Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. 8vo (24 cm, 9.5"). 2 pts. in 1 vol. [7] ff., [v]–xx, 711 (i.e., 709), [3 (1 blank)] pp.; fold. map; [1] f., iii, [1 (blank)], 190 pp.; fold. chart.
$850.00
First edition of this important linguistic aid. The dictionary is French to Cree and then Cree to French, with the Cree in roman alphabet. The grammar is organized, as one must expect, along the traditional Latin paradigm. Father Lacombe was a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and served as chaplain to workers laying track for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
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Several bibliographies, including Pilling's Proof-sheets and Ayer, treat this as two distinct works. Indeed, the dictionary and the grammar do each have their own distinct title-pages, pagination, and signature markings. They were issued together, however, though sometimes separated for sale. The publisher’s original paper wrappers are bound into this volume.
Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, 283; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-93 & Cree-9; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2155 & 2156. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Wrappers (bound in) dust-soiled and with edge chips; front wrapper partially adhered to half-title and back wrapper with Grammaire half-title affixed. Map partially adhered to an additional half-title. Page edges untrimmed; pages very slightly age-toned, else clean. Pagination jumps from 708 to 711 in pt. 1, but as the word listing goes from sagamité to sagamo it seems certain that the text is complete.
Lacombe's Grammar of
This "Beautiful" Language
Lacombe, Albert. Grammaire de la langue des Cris. Montréal: C.-O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. 8vo. [1] f., iii, [1 (blank)], 190 pp.; fold. table.
$975.00

First edition of the Rev. Lacombe's Cree grammar, a language whose grammatical structure has favorably impressed more than one investigator. Archdeacon Hunter in an 1875 lecture stated that he was extremely "impressed with the beauty,
order, and precision of the language used by the Indians around us. . . . If a Council of Grammarians, assembled from among the most eminent in all nations, had after years of labour propounded a new scheme of language, they could scarcely have elaborated a system more regular, beautiful, and symmetrical. . . . "
Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-95; Pilling, Algonquian, 283; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2156; Banks 36. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Modern maroon cloth with black spine and corners. Very good copy.

Neat
5-Volume Set
Elegantly
Bound
Ladvocat, Jean Baptiste.
Dictionnaire historique,
philosophique et critique, abrégé de Bayle et des grands dictionnaires biographiques qui ont paru
jusqu’a la publication de la biographie nouvelle des contemporains. Paris: Librairie Historique,
1821–22. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.1"). 5 vols. I: xiv, 480 pp. II: [4], 473, [1] pp. III: [4], 575, [1] pp. IV:
[4], 474 pp. V: [4], 496 pp.
$375.00

Scarce corrected and expanded edition of this biographical dictionary, following the
first of 1760, with entries updated to 1789. Originally published as the Dictionnaire historique
portatif des grands hommes, the work was based on Pierre Bayle’s famed Dictionaire historique et
critique (published in 1696) and on various other compendiums of the French Enlightenment era;
the title-page notes that this edition is intended “Pour servir d’introduction à la Biographie
nouvelle des contemporains,” edited by A.V. Arnault, A. Jay, E. Jouy, and J. Norvins, and — like
the present set — published by the Librairie historique.
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The Abbé Ladvocat, librarian of the Sorbonne and a prominent Hebraist and Biblical
exegete, also compiled the Dictionnaire géographique-portatif and a Grammaire Hébraïque à
l’usage des Ecoles de la Sorbonne.
Binding: Contemporary vellum,
spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped
compartment decorations.
Quérard, La France littéraire, IV,
387.
Some volumes somewhat sprung and spines slightly darkened, one spine
label chipped (refurbished) and one spine with small area of insect damage. Front free endpapers
each with inked ownership inscription dated 1833, front pastedowns each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Occasional small early inked shouldernotes, scattered light to
moderate foxing and spotting. Pp. 181–88 of vol. IV bound in upside down and in reverse order.
One leaf with closed tear from upper margin, just extending into text. (20682)
Amour . . .
Lassalle, Ferdinand. Une page d'amour de Ferdinand Lassalle. Recit - Correspondance - Confessions. Stamford, CT: Overbrook Press, 1959. 8vo. [8], 86, [2] pp.
$45.00
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for an enlargement.
One of 250 copies printed of these ardent love letters, in French, allegedly written by Lassalle to a young girl he met while taking the water cure at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1860.
Publisher's cloth, clean and unworn, in original glassine dustwrapper. (14192)
For
more NEW WORLD LANGUAGE material, more than
a little of it reflecting the French experience in CANADA,
click here.
Le Hon, Henri Sébastien. L’homme fossile en Europe son industrie, ses moeurs, ses oeuvres d’art ... cinquième édition avec une notice biographique .... Paris: J. Baudry, 1878. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.9"). Frontis., viii, 487, [1] pp.; 3 plts.
$250.00
Fifth edition, following the first of 1848, with added paleontological and archeological notes by M.E. DuPont. This study of prehistoric peoples was written by a military man and artist who specialized in maritime painting before
becoming interested in natural history, astronomy, and geology; the work is illustrated with
a chromolithographic
frontispiece, three tinted lithographic plates, and numerous in-text wood engravings.
Contemporary quarter green sheep in imitation of morocco over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; joints and edges slightly rubbed, spine showing very faint traces of a now-absent label. Front pastedown with private collector’s 19th-century bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Half-title with chip to outer margin; pages and plates clean and fresh.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. Briefwechsel zwischen Leibniz, Arnauld und dem Landgrafen Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels. Hannover: In Verlage der Hahnschen
Hof-Buchhandlung, 1846. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.2"). xiv, 210 pp.
$175.00
First edition: Philosophical correspondence conducted mostly in French by Leibniz, Antoine Arnauld, and Count Ernst von Hessen-Rheinfels regarding Leibniz’s Discourse on Metaphysics, edited and with an introduction in German by C.L. Grotefend. This stand-alone volume was issued as part of Georg Henrich Pertz’s collected works of Leibniz, and includes a title-page for that series.
Brunet, III, 950; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 345. Contemporary paper-covered boards, spine with inked paper label; joints and extremities rubbed, spine label darkened, spine with shelving label (inked over) and stamped numeral. Front pastedown with 19th-century private collector’s bookplate; inked numeral in lower margin of first text page (no other markings). Pages very faintly age-toned, with small spot of light staining to first five leaves, pages otherwise clean.
Lenormant, François. Les premières civilisations études d’histoire et d’archéologie. Paris: Maisonneuve & Cie., 1874. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.85"). 2 vols. I: viii, 401, [11] pp. II: [4], 437, [3] pp.
$175.00
Sole edition: Collection of essays on prehistoric archeology, focusing in the first volume on Egypt and in the second on Chaldea, Assyria, and Phoenicia. The author was raised virtually from birth to follow in the footsteps of his archeologist father, Charles Lenormant; among his contributions to classical scholarship was his identification of the language now known as Akkadian.
Contemporary quarter black morocco with paper-covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; bindings clean and solid with only very minimal edge and corner wear. Front pastedowns and free endpapers each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Pages slightly age-toned; a few leaves unopened.
Handsome.
Lens, André Corneille. Le costume ou essai sur les habillements et les usages de plusieurs peuples de l’antiquité, prouvé par les monuments. Liege: Aux dépens de l’auteur, chez J.F. Bassompierre, 1776. 4to (24.9 cm, 9.8"). xxxi, [1], 411, [1] pp.; 51 plts
$1750.00
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First edition: Treatise on ancient dress among the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Jews, and Romans, among other peoples. The author, a Flemish artist also known as Andries Cornelis Lens, came to the study of antiquarian clothing by way of his classically inspired focus in painting. Illustrated with 51 copper-engraved plates done by Pitre Martenasie, this is an “Ouvrage estimé” according to Brunet (who seemingly mistakenly cites 57 engravings as opposed to the 51 given by von Lipperheide, described in institutional holdings, and present here).
Brunet, III, 980; Von Lipperheide, Katalog der Freiherrlich von Lipperheide’schen Kostumbibliothek, 105. Contemporary calf, rebacked in complementary style, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; original leather acid-pitted and cracked over edges and extremities. Front pastedown with small bookseller’s ticket from Albany, NY; free endpapers with a few stray pencilled notations. Dedication page with institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin.
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