BOURGEOIS, Émile. Le grand siècle. Louis XIV - The arts - Id - Lot 36

BOURGEOIS, Émile. Le grand siècle. Louis XIV - The arts - Ideas. Published in Paris by Hachette et Cie in 1896. In-folio, full cherry basane, spine with five faux nerfs set with gilt garlands, cold-stamped coffers adorned with gilt crowns, boards richly decorated with a central cold-stamped sun framed by a wide gilt fleurdelysé band separated by cold-stamped crowns, blue paper endpapers and paste-downs, all edges gilt. XVI and 483 pages, numerous photogravure illustrations in black and white, 22 off-text portraits under serpents, including a frontispiece portrait of Louis XIV, several headbands, ornamented lettrines and endpapers. Title printed in blue, black and red, adorned with an engraved vignette. Spine faded, rubbed, boards scratched. First edition with a very rich iconography produced by photogravure from period documents and engravings, including 22 hors-texte portraits. The historian Émile Bourgeois (1857-1934), a great specialist of the 17th century, provides an exhaustive picture of the "Grand siècle", based on texts by Voltaire, Saint-Simon, Spanheim, Dangeau, Madame de Sévigné, Choisy, La Bruyère, Laporte, Le Mercure de France, La Princesse Palatine, etc. A superb publication printed on large white vellum and strong vellum for the hors-texte. Stamp of the library of the Petit Séminaire de Gourdon on the first endpaper. Beautiful decorative binding for this luxurious publication on the Grand Siècle.