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ALDE

137 - DELAMARE (Nicolas). Traité de la police, où l'on trouvera l'…
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Estimate €5,000 - €6,000
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DELAMARE (Nicolas). Traité de la police, où l'on trouvera l'histoire de son établissement, les fonctions et les prérogatives de ses magistrats, toutes les loix et tous les règlemens qui la concernent. Paris, Michel Brunet, 1713-1719. 3 volumes in-folio, red morocco, decorated with regular lace composed of three successive frames of gilt roulettes, fillets and small irons, spine decorated with small irons, inner roulette and on the edges, gilt edges on marbling (Binding of the period). According to Marcel Le Clère, this is "the most monumental work on the police in any language". The first two volumes are in reprint, dated 1713, and the third in the original edition. The iconography consists of eight folded plans of Paris at different times in the first volume and a number of handsome vignettes and lettering engraved by Benoît and Jean Audran after Antoine Dieu, including one with the figure of Louis XV repeated on the titles. A fundamental source for the history of Paris, for which it provides a historical and topographical description, this work is "essential for everything to do with the police" (Bourgeois and André). It is, in fact, the first major methodical treatise on the French police, covering all human activities and customs and containing a large number of documents relating to the history of institutions and mores. The undertaking by Nicolas Delamare (1639-1723), Commissaire de Police at the Châtelet de Paris, was encouraged by Guillaume de Lamoignon, First President of the Parlement de Paris, Nicolas de La Reynie, Lieutenant General of the Police, and Étienne Baluze, who gave the author access to Colbert's manuscripts and books. The work was planned in twelve books, but Delamare was only able to complete and publish the first five, which make up three folio volumes published successively in 1705, 1710 and 1719. They deal respectively with the police in general, religion, morals, health and food. The last of these, which covers volumes II and III in their entirety, is devoted to the laws and regulations governing the supply of food, commodity by commodity, which makes it very interesting for the history of food and gastronomy. It contains extensive information on wheat and grains, bread, meat and game, sea and freshwater fish, eggs, butter and cheese, fruit and vegetables, wine, beer and other beverages, wood, coal, etc., as well as the related trades. A precious copy bound in contemporary red morocco decorated with a rich lace frame, a rare and highly desirable condition. These bindings can be attributed to the workshop of Luc-Antoine Boyet, who was the King's bookbinder from 1698 until his death in 1733. The ironwork on the spine of the third volume, published six years later, is slightly different, but the lacework is identical. The companion volume published by Leclerc du Brillet is included: Continuation du Traité de la Police. Paris, Jean-François Hérissant, 1738. In-folio, red morocco, gilt border, ornate spine, gilt edges (period binding). First edition of the sixth book, De la voirie, updated after the author's death by his collaborator Anne-Louis Leclerc du Brillet. It contains two additional plans, surveyed by Abbé Delagrive, one devoted to the growth of Paris under Louis XV, the other to the city's fountains and water pipes. The supplements to the first two volumes published by Michel Brunet in 1722 have been bound at the end of the volume. An unregulated copy in contemporary red morocco. The spine decoration is similar to that of the other three volumes, but the boards are decorated with simple roulettes. Complete copies of the four volumes in contemporary morocco are extremely rare on the market. From the Gaston Charlet library, with bookplate. Small tears without missing some folding plans. Angular tear on p. 893 of vol. III. Le Clère, nos. 278 and 586 - Brunet, III, 785 - Bourgeois & André, SHF, XVIIe siècle, no. 338.
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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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