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72 - BIBLIA SACRA. Paris, Imprimerie royale, 1642. 6 volumes in-f…
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Estimate €4,000 - €5,000
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BIBLIA SACRA. Paris, Imprimerie royale, 1642. 6 volumes in-folio, red morocco, right border composed of a repetition of irons in brace evoking a braid, punctuated with flowers and fleurs-de-lis and set with a roulette and double and pearled fillets, crowned fleurs-de-lis at the corners, Royal coat of arms in the centre in a medallion of oak leaves, spine decorated with crowned fleurs-de-lis and small irons, inner lace and on the edges, comb paper lining and endpapers, gilt edges (Period binding). This is the typographical masterpiece of the Imprimerie Royale, established in the Louvre Palace in 1640 under the direction of Sébastien Cramoisy (1584-1669). These six majestic volumes contain the Old Testament; two other volumes were published separately for the New Testament. The text of the Vulgate is printed in large Roman type, and the ornamentation includes a superb title-frontispiece after Nicolas Poussin engraved with a burin by Claude Mellan in the first volume, and numerous intaglio vignettes, entablatures, culs-de-lampe and lettering, engraved by Pierre Daret and Abraham Bosse after the painter Jacques Stella, among others. The first Latin Bible from the royal printing house is extremely rare on the market. M. Delaveau and D. Hillard list four copies preserved in Paris - three bearing the royal coat of arms (BnF, Arsenal, Mazarine) and one bearing that of Michel Le Tellier (BSG). The CCFr lists three copies in Dijon, Valenciennes and Chantilly. Magnificent red morocco bindings bearing the arms of Louis XIV, attributable to Luc-Antoine Boyet, who was appointed master bookbinder in 1684 and held the position of royal bookbinder from 1698 until his death in 1733. They are decorated with the royal coat of arms encircled by a wreath of oak leaves designed by Boyet for works from the Imprimerie Royale between 1704 and 1723 and the rich braided border with crowned fleurs-de-lys. Luc-Antoine Boyet enjoyed a very high reputation during his lifetime, and in the first third of the 18th century his clients included all the great names of the emerging bibliophile world, such as Cisternay Du Fay, the Count of Hoym and the Abbé de Rothelin. An identical binding, attributed to Boyet and dated circa 1710, covers the edition of the Greek New Testament published the same year by the Imprimerie Royale in the Michel Wittock collection (2004, II, no. 165). From the libraries of the basilica of Saint-Pierre de Luxeuil, in Franche-Comté, with a handwritten bookplate dated 1742 on the titles (formerly obscured by a strip of paper), and Maignien, a Cistercian monk, with a typographical bookplate. Small tear in margin of frontispiece. Minor rubbing and a few scratches on the boards. Debure, n°42 - Brunet, I, 879 - Delaveau & Hillard, n°1028 - Bernard, Histoire de l'imprimerie royale de Louvre, p. 125 - IFF17, XVII, n°294 and Montaiglon, n°306 (for the frontispiece).
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
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Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
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