Lot n° 298
Estimation :
3000 - 3500
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 5 250EUR
ROCHEFORT (Pierre de). - Lot 298
ROCHEFORT (Pierre de).
Alphabets of the first ages.
Given to Fournier le Jeune by Mercier abbot of St Léger. Librarian of Ste Geneviève. [Paris. 1716-1719]. In-folio (37,5 x 27,5 cm). Handwritten title page, (27) plates [21 vat-engraved plates and 6 applied engraved plates] : half-binding with small corners of water green glossy paper, marbled paper boards. (19th century binding).
Rare collection of sixty-two alphabets finely engraved on copper, with their transcriptions, in frames and with their titles, also engraved, in cursive script, on a strong rag paper.
Engraver and print merchant on rue Saint-Jacques "Au Palmier", from 1709, engraver of the Academy of Sciences, Pierre de Rochefort (Paris 1673-After 1728 ? Lisbon) will later settle in Portugal where he will be engraver of the Academy of this country.
Twenty-one plates of alphabets underlined with their names and dates. Roman Alphabet from the first age to Other Armenian Alphabet begins and completes the collection. The rarest alphabets for the time are included: Chaldean, Syriac, Georgian, Japanese, Runic or Danish, Thoscan, Geomantic, Samaritan, Sarasin, Egyptian, Maronite, Hebrew, Abissin, etc. A plate of letter fonts completes Rochefort's expert engravings.
Two plates of initials on squared frames, one of them folded, unsigned, precede the four applied plates, the first three signed G. Queneau : "Calibres de toutes les sortes et grandesurs de lettres", followed by the machines and tools of the engraver and, the last one, for the reduction of the plates, not signed.
Barthélemy Mercier (1734-1799), abbot of Saint-Léger, librarian of the abbey of Sainte-Geneviève de Paris and bibliographer, worked on the history of printing. Pierre-Simon Fournier, known as le Jeune (1712-1768), was an engraver and type founder. Two handwritten notes from the period indicate on the first plate: "Bibl. San Gen. Paris. 1734 [and] Donné à Mr Fournier en Juin 1767 par Le P. S. Mercier" and, on folio (13), at the foot of the Hebrew General Alphabet, "Bib. San Genovesee parisiensis 1753."
The copperplates are preserved in the Cabinet des poinçons of the Imprimerie nationale.
No copies referenced in world libraries.
A well preserved copy. Spine and corners renewed, traces of an old binding thread in the inner margin, the folded plate is affected by wetness.
The plate of the General Alphabet Abissin [sic] has, on the reverse, a beautiful red chalk drawing of the period.
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