[Rarebooks] fa: AUBIN-LOUIS MILLIN: ANTIQUITES NATIONALES - 1790 - 250+ PLATES/5vols.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Ending Sunday, April 26, along with several other 16th-19th century  
titles...

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/arch_in_la

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain

	
Aubin-Louis Millin: Antiquites Nationales, ou Recueil de Monumens :  
Pour servir a l’Histoire generale et particuliere de l’Empire  
François, tels que Tombeaux, Inscriptions, Statues, Vitraux, Fresques,  
etc.; tires des Abbayes, Monasteres, Chateaux, et autres lieux devenus  
Domaines Nationaux. Par Aubin-Louis Millin. Paris: Chez M. Drouhin,  
L'an second de la Liberte, 1790-[1799]. FIRST EDITION. Five volumes.  
Hardcover 4to (27 x 21 cm) in marbled boards, leather spines; engraved  
plates, some folding.

Millin's massive and lavishly illustrated survey of great historic  
buildings and monuments (castles, fortresses, churches, monasteries,  
tombs, statues, etc.) destroyed or appropriated as "domaines  
nationaux" by the new revolutionary government of France. With 251  
exquisitely engraved plates (6 more than are called for in the  
"catalogues des planches" for the volumes), including 8 folding  
plates, by Carpantier, Bosse, Chapuis, Blanchard, Allais, Ransonnette,  
etc., after de Brion, Vangorp, Garneray, Duchemin, etc. In addition to  
handsome views of structures and details of architectural ornaments,  
there are numerous plates depicting religious, aristocratic, and  
historical costumes.

In November, 1789, the National Assembly had ordered the  
nationalization of the goods and property of the church: monasteries,  
convents, châteaux, etc., and their accompanying acreage, roughly 10%  
of France's territory. Standing at this crossroads of history, Aubin- 
Louis Millin (1759-1818 ) was documenting the end of an age as well as  
defending these "historic monuments" ("monuments historiques," a  
phrase Millin coined) from the more egregiously destructive adherents  
of the French Revolution. He begins his survey, fittingly enough, with  
the Bastille: "Il n'en est point de plus important que la Bastille,  
par la terreur qu'inspiroit son existence, & par la joie universelle  
qu'a causée sa chute."