Author: [BINDING VOC - MANUSCRIPT - FRENCH - VERNET, Jacob].
Title: [Instruction chrétienne, ou catechisme familier; avec quelques prières a l’usage des petits enfans].[The Netherlands?, ca. 1780?]. 4to (ca. 19 x 15 cm). Manuscript in French, written in black ink on paper, in a neat cursive script by one hand. With chapter divisions (numbered 39-75) and headings. The text is written upside down in relation to the binding. Most leaves show an identical watermark, depicting a lion rampant on a pedestal with “Vryheyt” in a crowned ring with “Pro Patria Eiusque Libertate” and the letters “CR” below, which is very close to Heawood 3149 (date: 1753). Late 18th-century gold-tooled brown mottled calf, sewn on 5 supports, bound by the so-called Acorn-and-Foliage Tool Bindery in Amsterdam (Storm van Leeuwen). Both boards show the large gold-tooled monogram of the Amsterdam chamber of the VOC as a centre piece sandwiched between the gold-tooled date “Anno 1780”, all within a gold-tooled floral frame with floral corner pieces in the inside corners, spine gold-tooled in six compartments, red sprinkled edges.
Description: [28] ll.Late 18th-century manuscript copy of a French children’s catechism by the Swiss theologian Jacob Vernet (1698-1789), bound in a remarkable late 18th-century binding, originally produced for the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) by the so-called Acorn-and-Foliage Tool Bindery which was active between ca. 1760 and ca. 1784 (Storm van Leeuwen).It shows the large monogram of the Amsterdam Chamber of the VOC sandwiched between the date "Anno 1780" on both boards. These bindings were usually commissioned as gifts to persons important to the VOC, often containing an almanac for the relevant year but possibly also produced as blank notebooks. The present work comprises chapters 39-49 and 58-75 of Vernet's work, which form almost the second half of printed editions. The chapters included in the present work are complete and exactly follow the order of the printed text in the Geneva 1742 edition (pp. 75-140, checked using a digital copy) with a slightly different spelling and replacing some words. For unclear reasons, chapters 50-57 (dealing with the fourth through tenth commandment) have not been copied and several leaves between the end of chapter 49 and the beginning of chapter 58 have been left blank.Vernet’s religious text was first published in 1741 under the title Instruction chrétienne, ou catechisme familier; avec quelques prières a l’usage des petits enfans .... In 1742, a revised edition appeared with a slightly different title Instruction crhetienne [!] ou catechisme familier. Avec quelques passages de l’Ecriture Sainte & quelques prières à l’usage des petits enfans. Nouvelle edition. Revuë, corrigée & augmentée. Both works were printed in Geneva for the Swiss bookseller Emanuel Du Villard (Emmanuel Duvillard, 1693-1776) and subsequently reprinted several more times until 1769. With the book block showing the remnants of 12 removed leaves, probably already removed before the manuscript was finished. Both pastedowns partly detached, an old annotation (“Ao. 44305”) in black ink on the lower pastedown, some foxing. Otherwise in good condition.l For the binding: Landwehr/Van der Krogt, VOC, pp. XXVII-XXVIII; Storm van Leeuwen I, p. 175, p. 196 (VOC A-stamp) and pp. 612-616 (the bindery); for Vernet's work: Google Books digital copy of the 1742 ed. (title: Instruction crhetienne [ ! ou Catechisme familier; physical copy at the Biblioteca Universitaria di Torino); WorldCat 951908419 (1 copy, 1767 ed.); WorldCat 1040828976 (1 copy, 1769 ed. (no author noted)); for the watermark: Heawood 3149.

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