Pedigree Antiquarian Books: Announcing Several Gems!

Assembled through an erudite family’s love of antique books, this library contains various treasures that have come from the collections of the Ducs de Montmorency and, through marriages and descendants, the Baron de Breteuil. The quality of the bindings rivals the beauty of the illustrations in the manuscripts; the rarity of the texts and the splendor of the arms that appear on them. There are only 74 lots, ranging from the 16th to the 18th centuries, but each one is a gem taking us through the history of France, where we cross paths with some of the figures who helped write it. Plenty to stir up the world of bibliophiles and public institutions, that’s for sure! Jean Pierre Rousselet (active late 17th/early 18th centuries), Cérémonial des Vestures et Profession à l’usage des dames religieuses de la Présentation (Ceremonial of the Vesture and Taking of Vows for the Sisters of La Présentation) , illuminated manuscript on vellum, 49 ff, quarto, full morocco binding with the arms of du Plessis de Richelieu. Estimate: €10,000/12,000 First of all, a tribute to some great ladies: those who remained in the shadows and were restored to their rightful place in the ostensibly male world of bibliophily by the literary critic Albert Cim, in Les Femmes et les livres ( Women and Books ; 1919).…