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VAN PRAET, JOSEPH BASILE BERNARD, Catalogue des livres imprimés sur vélin de la Bibliothéque du Roi [With:] Catalogue des livres imprimés sur vélin, qui se trouvent dans des Bibliothéques tant publiques que particulières.
Paris: Crapelet for De Bure frères, 1822-1828; 1824-1828. First editions. 6 volumes in 5, including supplement; and 4 volumes vols., 8vo (22.8 x 14.6 cm). . Uniform 20th-century cloth-backed marbled boards, brown moroccco lettering pieces. Breslauer& Folter 123; Brunet V, 1079: 1080. ¶ First edition, PRINTED ON HEAVY LAID PAPER, OF THE FIRST AND MOST EXTENSIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS PRINTED ON VELLUM. The first work describes 1,700 works owned by what is now the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the second 2,750 in other public and private libraries. Van Praet, Royal, National and Imperial librarian, provided Napoleon's invading armies with lists of 'desiderata.' Under the terms of the peace treaties these books had to be returned, but Van Praet managed to retain many of them for the library The first edition of these catalogues consisted of only 200 copies -- and a complete set of Van Praet has become almost impossible to find. Brunet remarks that "the importance of the books described, as well as their value, the rigorous precision of the descriptions, and the curious anecdotes that accompany them, gives this catalogue its attraction ..." One might add that the modern reprint pales by comparison with the superb quality of the thick paper used in the first original
Offered for US$ 2250.00 by: James Cummins Bookseller - Book number: 223061