THOU, Jacques Auguste de).

Catalogus Bibliothecae Thuanae

      - à Petro & Jacobo Puteanis ordine Alphabetico primùm distributus; tum à Ismaele Bullialdo Secundùm Scientias & artes digestus, Denique editus à Josepho Quesnell Parisiis, impensis Directionis nunc Vero Hamburgi, apud Christian. Liebezeit, Bibliopol. Engraved frontis. Title printed in red & black. 52 (incl. frontis.), [4], 510 pp.; 632 pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. speckled calf (occasional minor foxing or browning), triple gilt fillets round sides, in corners of each cover the tool of a fleur-de-lys surmounted by a royal crown, spines richly gilt, red morocco lettering pieces on spines. Hamburg: C. Liebezeit, 1704. Second edition (1st ed.: Paris: 1679) of "the most celebrated and frequently consulted seventeenth-century private library catalogue. The library was largely formed by Jacques Auguste De Thou (1553-1617), the eminent French historian and statesman. Although the purpose of its publication was the sale of the De Thou library, which took place in 1681, its continued usefulness called for a reprint in 1704 [the present edition].Most of the descriptions are in fact not by the brothers Dupuy but by the well-known scientist Ismael Boulliau (1605-1694), who arranged them according to a bibliographical system which, with slight variations by Prosper Marchand (1676-1756), and Gabriel Martin (1679-1761), was the one most frequently adopted in France and became known as the ‘Système des Libraires de Paris’."–Grolier Club, Bibliography, 76–(1st ed.). The "reprintings of catalogues of private libraries like those of the Thuana and the Aprosiana are good evidence of the use of these catalogues as reference works. The books in all these collections have been scattered, and the reprinted catalogues could serve only bibliographers and scholars."–Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 110–(who also notes on page 265 that Schelhorn preferred the 1704 edition). Very fine set. With the bookplate of Wm. Constable (all his books are in wonderfully fresh condition and this is no exception). ? Pollard & Ehrman, pp. 208-09 & 211-12. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]