Stances Choisies Sur La Vie De Jesus-Christ, Et Sur Diverses Veritez Chrétiennes.
?Turin, s.n. 1711.
8vo (173 x 103 mm.). 352, [12]p. Etched and engraved Ascension headpiece, idiosyncratic page design and ornament (see below).
Blind-ruled black morocco, gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt, blue silk marker.
"PRINTED IN TWENTY-FIVE TO THIRTY COPIES” (Chantilly catalog of the duc d’Aumale), this curious book was made for the ten- and twelve-year-old princes of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel III and Victor Amadeus. The verses treat dueling, games, relics, drunkenness, cosmetics, novels, discretion, justice, charity, virginity, the abuse of poetry….
The design is unusual. Every page has only ten-lines of heavily leaded type, a headpiece with the boys’ coat of arms between two blocks of small fleurons and one of dozens of representational or fanciful woodcut vignettes as a tailpiece. The anonymous editor signed the dedication A.M., possibly Amedeo Marchisio, the Turin lawyer and author of a festival book (Pompe natalizie) on the birth of Victor Amadeus. I have not located a copy of this edition outside of Europe. In good condition (two leaves with old repairs, one quire browned), bookplate of Savoy collector Jean Faga (Catalogue (1897) 165).
¶Arnauld d’Andilly, Oeuvres chrétiennes (1644) ed. Gheeraert passim, esp. 20 & 280; see Cioranescu 8382 & 8385.
Price: $3,500.00