Oeuvres De Moliére, avec des Remarques Grammaticales; des Avertissements et des Observations sur Chaque Piece.

Oeuvres De Moliére, avec des Remarques Grammaticales; des Avertissements et des Observations sur Chaque Piece.

Jean-Baptiste Moliere,

[Antoine] M. Bret

Paris: Aux Dépens des Libraires Associés

Avec Approbation & Privilege du Roi

1778

The smooth covers of this book are marbled leather, dark brown on medium brown. The spine is also smooth, typical for the time and place of production, meaning the sewing bands have been hidden by being padded with paper waste. Smooth spines allow for a more unbroken design to be displayed on the spine. In the case of this book, the design is a repeating scroll stamp with two sections left blank for the title insert (mostly gone now) and presumably the volume information (unreadable).
The edges of the textblock were dipped into a marbling solution, but as with the spine, deterioration makes determining the pattern difficult, while the endpapers are clearly a comb marbling with stones in blue, yellow, and red on white. This look appeared throughout Europe in the 18th century.
The paper is made of old rags, and the beginning of new sections have raised capitals. The illustrations are modest scrolls or florals dropped in to show breaks within the text.
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Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (aka Moliére) was a French playwright and actor, best remembered for his comedies. His style was to view a situation from two vantage points, rational and irrational with a heavy dose of the latter, but his work was still looked upon askance during his own time. He took to the theater in 1644 taking the name Moliére as his stage name rather than following in his father's footsteps in trade with a royal appointment to the kings of France. His best known works are "Tartuffe," "L'École des femmes," "Le Misanthrope," and "Le Bougeois Gentilhomme."
Moliére lived from 1622-1673.

Literature

SPECIAL PQ1821 1778

Hardcover book, 5.75 x 3.5 inches

French

This book can be seen in the photographs, Display Case 1a and Display Case 1b.

Book