La nouvelle méthode raisonnée du blason, pour l'apprendre d'une manière aisée, réduite en leçons, par demandes et par réponses, by Menestrier, C.F. [Claude François] de la Compagnie de Jesus
Inventory #: 01912
Price: $500.00

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La nouvelle méthode raisonnée du blason, pour l'apprendre d'une manière aisée, réduite en leçons, par demandes et par réponses, by Menestrier, C.F. [Claude François] de la Compagnie de Jesus. A Bordeaux, Par La Societe,, 1698. Edition: Early printing. Leather, 12 mo, 298, [26 index] pages. Original leather; five bands on spine; gilt decoration on spine. Frontispiece and 32 additional woodcut plates illustrating hundreds of shields, plus numerous other woodcuts within the text. Text is in French.

Condition: Former owner's bookplate on inside cover. Spine ends show some loss of material; joints and bands on spine are worn as are corners and edges; front joint beginning to split. A few lightly penned notations on title page and a few pencilled notations on inside back cover referencing specific text pages. Pages are foxed with some dampstaining. Page 253 has a one inch tear. Please see photographs below.

Contents: Claude François Menestrier (Lyon, 1631-1705) was a French Jesuit antiquarian, considered one of the greatest authorities of his time on heraldry. He wrote numerous books, but this one is designed as an educational textbook, written in a question-and-answer style and extensively illustrated. This is considered a classic text in its field, and numerous editions and revisions were published, but examples from the 1600's are considerably less common than those published in the 1700's and later.

Front cover:

Back cover:

Chipping to upper spine and wear to upper corners.

Wear to lower corners.

Wear to foredge

Close-up of the spine, showing joint starting to split.

Former owner's bookplate: Pelham family crest.

Frontispiece

Title Page with a few penned notations from a former owner.

Woodcuts. One of the more extensively foxed pages.

About 30 plates are like the one shown here, with twenty shields shown, numbered, and referenced in the text.

Some pages near the front of the book are dampstained.

Close-up of the spine, showing joint starting to split.