[Rarebooks] fa: ARIOSTO - ROLAND FURIEUX 1775-83 - 4 vols. w/ 93 Plates - Bisiaux Bindings

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/hclk5bn

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Ludovico Ariosto; Louis d'Ussieux, trans.: Roland Furieux, Poeme Heroique, de l'Arioste. Traduction nouvelle, par M. d'Ussieux. Paris: chez Brunet/chez Laporte, 1775-1783. First edition thus. Four volumes, tall 8vo (23 cm), in period bindings by Bisiaux of blue goatskin with gilt-tooled covers, spines and turn-ins, all page edges gilt, silk endpapers; with a portrait frontispiece and 92 engraved plates (complete). Cohen-De Ricci 98.

According to Cohen-De Ricci, the plates in this edition consist of the portrait frontispiece from "l'edition italienne," the suite of 46 engravings from the Baskerville edition of 1773, and a new suite of 46 engravings after designs by Cochin. "Les planches sont sont rarement belles." Quite uncommon: OCLC WorldCat locates only six complete sets in libraries worldwide, none in the U.S. The verso of the front silk endpaper in volume I bears the label of the bookbinder: "Relie par Bisiaux, Rue du Foin St. Jacques no. 32." Pierre Joseph Bisiaux (fl. 1777-1801) was one of the leading binders of the period of transition from the monarchy to the Napoleonic era, executing bindings for the comtesse Du Barry, Beaumarchais, Louis XVI, and others. The British Library notes that his workshops were situated at this rue du Foin St. Jacques address in 1785, making these handsome bindings exactly  contemporaneous with their contents.