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VOLTAIRE (FRANCOIS-MARIE AROUET, DIT. 1694-1778). OEUVRES COMPLETES. TOMES TRENTE-SEPTIEME (A QUARANTE-TROISIEME). DICTIONNAIRE PHILOSOPHIQUE. (KEHL). IMPRIMERIE DE LA SOCIETE LITTERAIRE-TYPOGRAPHIQUE. 1785. 7 VOLUMES IN-8 (13 X 21 X 24,5 CENTIMETRES ENVIRON) DE (4) + 572, (4) + 552, (4) + 568, (4) + 575, (4) + 512, (4) + 475 ET (4) + 507 PAGES, RELIURE D'EPOQUE PLEIN VEAU BLOND, DOS LISSE ORNE DE CAISSONS A FLEURONS DORES, DENTELLE DOREE ENCADRANT LES PLATS, DENTELLE DOREE SUR COUPES, TITRE DORE SUR ETIQUETTES MAROQUIN VERT ET ROUGE, TRANCHES DOREES (RELIE PAR DELORME, RUE ST JACQUES N°191). ETIQUETTE DANS CHACUN DES VOLUMES : «EX-LIBRIS ROUSSEAU». |
| I discovered this set of books by searching the internet with Google using "relie par delorme rue st. jacques no. 191." At first I was not sure that this set was really a Delorme, and the seller did not show Delorme's ticket so I sent off an email asking for a photo of the ticket and received a quick reply with the photo shown below |
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This is similar but not quite the same as a Delorme ticket found on on a 1790 Fenelon Les Aventures de télémaque, (click here to see this). Then I asked for a photo of the xox roulette on the boards explaining that I was looking for evidence of the flaw in this roulette. I sent him an example of what I was looking for and received the photo shown below. |
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This then looked like very convincing proof so I quickly ordered this rather plain looking set of Voltaire's famous Dictionaire Philoshophique with Delorme tickets inside. These volumes are part of a 70 volume set, the complete works of Voltaire. Now if you don't know a lot about Voltaire I recommend this wikipedia page
where we learn a lot about who he was and what he wrote. What we can say is that he was someone born at a critical time in French history, where freedom of speech and freedom of thought was permitted, this does not exist today, where censorship, manages to block the slightest deviation from the narrative. Today Voltaire would be considered a dangerous radical and quickly imprisoned, and I am surprised that his writing is still freely available. When I finally had these books at home and started scanning them, my first test was to compare closely the xox roulette. I soon realized that the imprints had to be greatly enlarged to try to identify any flaw or deviation in pattern that would permit an accurate measurement of this roulette |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we compare the Voltaire roulette xox with Delorme xox roulettes from the bindings shown on page 17 2020 The 1788 example fits if we add 5 % to give this binding a height of 20.4 cm, this binding is stated to be 19.7? I think this may not be correct as stretching this imprint gives a good match of the various parts. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, I show a spine from the Voltaire set compared with 2 Almanach Royal spines that have been decorated by Delorme as we can see by the obvious Delorme imprints. There are a number of matching imprints within these spines, the most obvious perhaps are the spine panel centerpiece fleurons (d-spc). |
| In Comparative Diagram 5 we look at these centerpiece fleurons more closely, (abcd - 1788 Almanach Royal, wxyz - Voltaire set). The yellow and blue arrows point to the separation or a lack of it where the outer rings are placed above the six central petals. Mauve arrow indicating a ring that is less circular and more ovaloid than most. A count of the segments within the petals shows that most petals contain 7 segments. We need actually even higher resolutions to see this clearly. In general this diagram appears to confirm the possibility that these imprints all derive from the same Delorme tool (d-spc) |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, we compare the 1787 Almanach Royal pallet with the Voltaire pallet. We have looked at these pallets on the previous page that appear to be similar to Barber's PAL 48 and 49 tools. In as much as these spines are curved it is going to be hard to compare these imprints accurately, however I am confident that these imprints derive from the same Delorme tool and therefore I am fairly certain that this Voltaire set was indeed decorated by Delorme. |
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click here to return to the HOME page. click here to see an INDEX of the 2017 pages. see below links to previous work |
| Even experts are sometimes wrong, before you spend thousands on a book, please do your own research! Just because I say a certain binding can be attributed to le Maitre isn't any kind of guarantee, don't take my word for it, go a step further and get your own proof. In these pages I have provided you with a way of doing just that. |
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