Lot n° 297
Estimation :
2000 - 2500
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 4 000EUR
RIGAULT (A.).
Collection of characters &... - Lot 297 - Ader
RIGAULT (A.).
Collection of characters & Alphabets of dead and living languages.
By Mr. A. Rigault. Without place. 1819. Manuscript in-folio (40,5 x 27,5 cm). (114) pp. and loose leaves of different sizes and papers, (2) ff. of photocopies of an old document [biography of Mr. Rigault, Father], brown ink on paper ruled with red ink : muted laid paper boards of the period, edges of vellum.
Precious manuscript and accomplished collection of a life's work by the self-taught scientist A. Rigault.
[If we are to believe the two attached leaves, which seem to be in the same hand as the fine handwriting of the work, and completed over the years to trace his work]. Born in 1745 in Charonne-les-Paris, fatherless at the age of two, Rigault taught himself arithmetic, surveying and leveling. He entered the House of Orleans and was in charge of the plans for the Parc du Rincy [Raincy], those of the Capitainerie de Vincennes and the forest of Bondy. After the death of the Duke of Orleans, he held various jobs: cashier of the Maison Saint-Simon, messenger service, director of the roads of Picardy, etc. Retired to La Ferté-sous-Jouarre in 1800, he devoted himself to various scientific researches; geography, astronomy and wrote this collection. He also compiles the History of the Kings of France, a Dictionary of Natural History, a Table of all religions, etc. The list of his works ends in 1836, he would have been 91 years old.
The manuscript includes numerous alphabets on plates accompanied by a tiny graph on two columns explaining the language of the different alphabets. Franconian alphabet, Hebrew and Samaritan, Rabbinic and "quarrelsome" Hebrew, Mauritanian, Oriental, ancient Chaldean, "Siriac", Arabic [...] Stenographic alphabet, Tachigraphic alphabet, Telegraphic characters, "Okygraphic" characters, Physionomic, Alphabet of the Deaf-Mute. The end of the book is devoted to other fields: Music, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Astrology, Physiognomy, Phrenology, Palmistry, Danse Macabre (colored), Card and Tarot games. Some leaves of the author are interspersed between the pages.
Extremely rare and fascinating manuscript, in its period cardboard, very well preserved, with the usual rubbing on the spine.
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue