[Rarebooks] fa: MEMOIRS OF JOHN LORD DE JOINVILLE - Wales: Haford Press, 1807 - Fine Printing

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 21. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/yeola2dw

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Jean de Joinville: Memoirs of John Lord de Joinville, Grand Seneschal of Champagne, Written by Himself; Containing a History of Part of the Life of Louis IX, King of France, surnamed Saint Louis, Including an Account of that King's Expedition to Egypt in the Years MCCXLVIII. To which is added, the Notes & Dissertations of M. du Cange on the above; together with the Dissertations of M. le Baron de la Bastie on the Life of St. Louis, M. l'Evesque de la Ravaliere and M. Falconet on the Assassins of Syria; from the 'Memoires de l'Academie de Belles Lettres et Inscriptions de France.' The whole translated by Thomas Johnes, Esq. [Pwlpeiran, Cardiganshire, Wales:] At the Haford Press, by James Henderson, 1807. First edition thus. Two volumes bound in one, heavy 4to (30 cm) in modern three-quarter calf and marbled boards, marbled page edges; [8], 426 pp.; vii, [1], 328 pp.; with the half-title pages and 6 engraved plates and maps, two of which are folding (complete).

A handsome copy of a handsome production from this short-lived press, the first private press in Wales, founded in 1802 by Thomas Johnes, MP, agriculturalist, fellow of the Royal Society, and the translator of the present work. Keen to publish his own editions of early French works, but not wanting to take time off from overseeing improvements to his estate (including the planting of 2,065,000 trees over a five-year period), Johnes set up the printer James Henderson "in a cottage among the hills, at the distance of one mile and a half from his mansion." He named the press after his estate, Hafodychtryd, or Haford, and the title-pages of both volumes bear a fine wood engraving of the house. Johnes also published Froissart's Chronicles as well as A Catalogue of the Haford Library before the press was discontinued in 1810. Light toning to the contents, spotting to and from some of the plates, a few scattered light spots to the text, else very clean and sound in a fresh and appealing modern binding.