Annales Politiques [Two Volume Set]
![Annales Politiques [Two Volume Set]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/511/900/1690900511.0.x.jpg)
- Londres: s.i., 1757
Londres: s.i., 1757. Near Fine. Londres: s.i., 1757. Two volumes; octavos (21cm); original temporary binding of blockprinted wrappers No. 185 (183?) by Orleans printer Jean-Baptiste Letourmi (a.k.a. Letourmy), manuscript spine labels, housed in custom slipcase; 338; [339]-678pp. (collated complete with half title pages).; woodcut vignettes to title pages. Light chipping and toning to wrappers, else a Near Fine, marvelously preserved set.
False imprint edition of European political history by the late author Charles Irenée Castel, Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743). Castel, father of the concept of perpetual peace, was the first to propose a European union in his 1713 "Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe," whose influence reached the minds of Rousseau, Voltaire, Frederick the Great, and Kant. That work was also "destined to exercise considerable influence on the development of various schemes for securing universal peace which culminated in the Holy Alliance [and later the League of Nations and the United Nations]" (Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition).
Of special interest is the choice of "temporary" binding, wrappers signed and numbered in print along the bottom margin of the binding by the major local printer, Jean-Baptiste Letourmy of Orleans. "Assisted by one or more skilled block-cutters, [Letourmy] produced numerous religious prints and traditional images, keeping up with current events when revolution broke out. He produced at least 321 designs of patterned paper," of which this is pattern no. 185 (or possible 183), a repeating motif employing Letourmy's favorite color, brilliant blue, as well as red and yellow. Letourmy was a shrewd businessperson with an extensive net of agents, exemplified by this volume, which was almost certainly published 350 miles away in Paris, not London.
ESTC T98049.
False imprint edition of European political history by the late author Charles Irenée Castel, Abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658-1743). Castel, father of the concept of perpetual peace, was the first to propose a European union in his 1713 "Projet pour rendre la paix perpétuelle en Europe," whose influence reached the minds of Rousseau, Voltaire, Frederick the Great, and Kant. That work was also "destined to exercise considerable influence on the development of various schemes for securing universal peace which culminated in the Holy Alliance [and later the League of Nations and the United Nations]" (Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition).
Of special interest is the choice of "temporary" binding, wrappers signed and numbered in print along the bottom margin of the binding by the major local printer, Jean-Baptiste Letourmy of Orleans. "Assisted by one or more skilled block-cutters, [Letourmy] produced numerous religious prints and traditional images, keeping up with current events when revolution broke out. He produced at least 321 designs of patterned paper," of which this is pattern no. 185 (or possible 183), a repeating motif employing Letourmy's favorite color, brilliant blue, as well as red and yellow. Letourmy was a shrewd businessperson with an extensive net of agents, exemplified by this volume, which was almost certainly published 350 miles away in Paris, not London.
ESTC T98049.