BOURASSÉ Abbé - Lot 334

BOURASSÉ Abbé La Touraine: History and Monuments Tours, Alfred Mame et Cie, 1856 In-folio, green chagrin, ornate ribbed spine, boards decorated with the gilt Touraine coat of arms, gilt super libris "Lycée impérial de Tours, 9 Aout 1866, prix d'Honneur de Rhétorique, offert par le Conseil Général d'Indre-et -Loire à l'élève A.Quantin". (2) ff, 610 pp, (1) p. 4 h.-t. chromolithographs (including frontispiece), 14 h.-t. steel-engraved figs after Karl Girardet and Français, 1 h.-t. map and 262 wood-engraved vignettes in the text. Minor wear to binding, clean inside. Second Edition of the most famous and beautiful work devoted to Touraine. This book was unanimously hailed as the typographic and illustrative masterpiece of its century. Presented at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, the international jury awarded it the Grande Médaille d'Honneur and this unmistakable tribute: "It's a masterpiece. In the eyes of all typographers, it is an outstanding work in every respect". Never, according to the experts, had we seen paper so white, so firm, so rich in fullness, so ductile in width... The perfection of the finest details matched that of the whole. This work played a major role in establishing the international reputation and prestige of Mame. Published under the direction of Abbé Bourassé, it was written in collaboration with members of the Société Archéologique de Touraine, including Salmon, Champoiseau, Lambron de Lignim, Galembert, La Gournerie, Grandmaison, Boilleau, Giraudet, Todière and Abbé Chevalier. The woodcuts were executed in the Berthiault workshops in Tours, based on drawings by Girardet and Français, who toured Touraine in 1853-54 and photographed the locations they reproduced. Catenacci engraved the ornamentation. Finally, Alfred Mame specially cast new typefaces. Brunet I, 1174; Taschereau, 17 ("Magnifique volume"); "This work is a monument; the woodcuts are remarkable. Unfortunately, its format wrongly keeps it out of some libraries. You have to realize that these days, such a profusion of woodcut illustrations is an expensive luxury because of the cost of labor. The richest publisher would ruin himself in such ventures" (Carteret, Le Trésor du bibliophile, III, 103). Pierre Duchemin, Bourassé and two monumental works: La Touraine, histoire et monuments and La Sainte Bible, drawings by Gustave Doré in BSAT, LXX, 2013.