Beschreibung:

PARIS, Bibliothèque du Roi -- Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Regiae . 4 volumes. - Catalogue des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque du Roy . 6 volumes. Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1739-53. Royal 2 o (400 x 255 mm), 10 volumes (all published). Printed in double columns. Woodcut royal arms on titles, fine type-ornament headpieces. CONTEMPORARY PARISIAN ARMORIAL BINDINGS FOR THE DUC D'ORLéANS: gold-tooled red morocco, triple fillet round sides, Orléans arms-block in center (Olivier 2572 fer 4), spines with six raised bands, two sizes of fleurs-de-lis in the compartments, as well as a small star and fleuron, a foliate roll and a tooth roll, two impressions of a sun tool in the third compartment of the manuscript-catalogue volumes only, roll-tooled turn-ins, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, (a few tiny scuff marks). Provenance : Louis-Philippe I, Duc d'Orléans (1725-85), First Prince of the Blood (premier prince du sang, premier pair de France), his Paris sale, 1787, lots 2112-2113 -- James Harris first Earl of Malmesbury (1746-1820), presumably acquired at the Orléans sale, his old Hurn Court Library shelf-marks -- Major Adrian McLaughlin (Monaco sale, 7 October 1980, lot 1322). COMPLETE SET OF ALL THAT WAS PUBLISHED of this great cataloguing project of the French Royal Library, which was begun under the direction of the most influential librarian of the 18th century, the abbé Jean-Paul-Bignon (1662-1743, appointed 1719, elected to Bussy-Rabutin's seat at the Académie française). François Sevin was in charge of the manuscripts, Jean Capperonnier of the Greek manuscripts (in the event, only the oriental and classical manuscripts were catalogued), and Claude Sallier was responsible for the printed book cataloguing (only Theology and Literature were finished, and a single volume for Law). The Orléans-Malmesbury set of this splendid publication is in wonderfully FRESH AND BRIGHT CONDITION. BBB Wittockiana 8; BBB Harvard 1; Brunet I, 1650-51.