LES HOMMES ILLUSTRES QUI ONT PARU EN FRANCE PENDANT CE SIE?CLE. Avec leurs portraits au naturel. 2 volumes. With 107 copper engravings, of which 104 plates, showing an allegoric frontispiece (after Bonet) and 103 portraits engraved by Gérard Edelinck, Jacques Lubin et al., incorporating captions and in parts armorials, as well as publisher’s device (repeated).

Well preserved copy of the 1st printing of this Who’s Who of 17th century France, edited by Charles Perrault, an influential figure in the 17th-century French literary scene and leader of the „Moderns“ during their quarrel against the „Ancients“. – Contents, Illustration: All personalities are pictured with precise engravings by Gérard Edelinck, Jacques Lubin et al. after drawings and paintings by a number or artists. Starting with the omnipotent Cardinal Richelieu, there are to be found e.g. Colbert, Corneille, Descartes, Molière and Racine, as well as Blaise Pascal. His and D’Arnaulds portraits, due to censorship lacking in later print-runs, are well conserved in this copy of the 1st, as well as the engravings of their substitutes Thomassin and Du Fresne, bound in without the correspondent texts as supplements of vol. 2. – Condition: Corners and margins of binding in parts worn, boards minimally scratched, inside in parts slightly finger-stained and minimally foxy, otherwise well preserved copy of this illustrious print on high quality mould paper. Former owner’s („FvH“) little stamp on frontispiece and title pages. – Provenance: Eduard Böcking, renown German liberal historian and jurist, with his engraved and dated („1848“) bookplate tipped-on front board verso of vol. 1. Böcking also contributed the hand-written index which a total of 105 names, mentioning also Charles de La Porte and Maximilien de Béthune that are actually not included.– Reference: Calot, L’Art du livre en France, 110; Lipperheide Fb25; Rahir, La Bibliothe?que de l’amateur, 579.