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AUTEUR: [Isaac-Louis Le Maistre de Sacy; Antoine Le Maistre; Antoine Arnauld; Pierre Nicole;] TITRE: Le nouveau testament de Nostre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, traduit en françois selon l'édition vulgate, avec les différences du grec, sixième édition revue et corrigée. Les épistres de St-Paul, les épistres canoniques, l'apocalypse. A Mons, chez Gaspard Migeot, en la rue de la Chaussée, à l'enseigne des Trois Vertus, 1668. LIEU: EDITEUR, DATE: Mons, chez Gaspard Migeot, à l'enseigne des Trois-Vertus 1668, COLLATION: tomes reliés en un volume. [44]-503-408-[6] p FORMAT: In -4 de 26 x 20 cm RELIURE: belle reliure en plein maroquin brun de l'époque dos à nerfs orné d'un riche décor aux petits fers dorés, triple filet d'encadrement sur les plats, coupes et chasses ornés de dentelles dorées, tranches dorées sur marbrure. ILLUSTRATIONS: Ornée d'un frontispice de J.-Bapt. de Champagne gravé par H. Pitau sc. 1667. Titre, lettres rouges et noires. Notre exemplaire truffé d'une gravure collé au recto du frontispice et 2 au format in-8. Marque à la Foi aux titres. Ornements typographiques. |
| I came across this Boyet binding on eBay in September 2019. The seller provided many photos and there was no doubt in my mind that this was a Boyet, however I did not go too far in studying the decoration until I managed to win it. Being a confirmed Boyet addict, there was no way I was going to let this binding escape, and my bids probably made this item a bit more expensive than it might have been otherwise, not that you can put a price on a Boyet. Now with high resolution photographs we see that there are some interesting parallels between this binding and a 1688 Breviarium that I have detailed on a previous page (click here to see it). |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we can see that the centerpiece fluron (fer 14) is identical to that of the fleuron found in the same location of the 1688 Breviarium. Also we see that the corner tools are the same (lab-corner-1a and 1b). While the side fleuron looks similar but is larger (lab-1a). Some of the smaller tools may be the same especially the tiny satellite fleur-de-lis. However there is another parallel here. Below I show the Mons N.T. inner dentelle this appears to be the same roulette as shown on the Breviarium spine (Boyet roulette D-2). |
| I have included here in Comparative Diagram 3, and updated list of common Boyet roulettes, some had to be removed from the old list as they were not authentic Boyet tools. The D-2 roulette used here as an inner dentelle, measured 8.32 cm suggesting that the D-2 measurement shown on this chart (8.25) may be a bit smaller than actual. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, I show the Mons N.T. endpapers compared with a sample from Boyet example, binding 26, page 71, from Isabelle de Conihout & Pascal Ract-Madoux Reliures françaises du XVIIe siècle, Paris, 2002. Here I think we see the same sort of marbled paper that the authors have designated papier peigne à frisons.This they show as their first example of Boyet's marbled endpapers, on a binding that cannot be earlier than 1695. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, we see the lower spine greatly enlarged. I was hoping to get a good example of this Boyet XVII bird palette, however we see that even greatly enlarged, this palette is lacking clear detail, perhaps due to poor quality gold, or an iron that was not hot enough, probably only a person who has actually done this sort of work may be able to tell us why. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6 we make an interesting discovery, we compare this Mons N.T, palette with the same palette illustrated by Jeanne-Marie Metivier, in her paper entitled Luc-Antoine Boyet, relieur de l'Imprimerie royale (1704-1723) found in La Reliure (Revue de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, numéro 12) Paris, BNF, 2002. The Metivier example has been decorated with the arms of comte d'Hoym and therefore must have been made sometime after 1711. We see that this palette has been framed in the same fashion as the Mons N.T. example, with a 3 block K roulette. This could suggest that the Mons N.T. Nouveau Testament was bound around this date or later... |
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| 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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