Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

[CHAUDON, Louis Mayeul]. HISTOIRE ABRÉGÉ DE TOUS LES HOMMES QUI SE SONT FAIT UN NOM PAR LEURS TALENS dans les Arts, de la Peinture, de la Gravure, et de l’Architecture. Remiremont:, c.1800. £1,500

​

MANUSCRIPT. 4to, pp. [iv], 233, [4] index, [1] blank; manuscript in ink in a neat hand on lined blue paper; decorative title-page, headpiece, and tailpiece, with ‘B. Duchamp’ in red ink on title-page; note ‘Reçu par monsieur Berin (?) professeur’ on front free endpaper; some foxing and spotting in places; in contemporary sheep, flat spine tooled in gilt with title (’Recueil’) in gilt; spine and boards somewhat worn, with hole in leather near foot of upper joint.

​

A fine manuscript, possibly compiled by a student at the Collège de Blamont in Eastern France, and constituting a remarkable self-produced biographical dictionary of artists.

​

The Avis at the start of the work tells us that ‘Le présent recueil est tiré littéralement du Dictionnaire des hommes illustres, Edition de 1766, et comprend les vies et les chefs d’oeuvre des Artistes les plus célebres en Peinture, en Sculpture, en Gravure et en Architecture’. This dictionary is in fact the Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique-Portatif, ou Histoire Abgregée de tous les hommes qui se sont fait un nom par des talens, des vertus, des forfaits, des erreurs, by Louis Mayeul Chaudon, printed by Rey in 1766, after a first edition of 1765; Chaudon’s work, originally in four octavo volumes, contains biographical information on important figures from all fields, ranging from mathematicians to churchmen and diplomats, with entries ranging from a few lines to more than a page; one can only imagine the effort the compiler of the present volume went to to extract the entries he considered relevant. In addition to the texts, the compiler has also provided a neat and comprehensive index of names at the end of the volume.

​

It is unclear what prompted the production of this volume, or even who was responsible. The various manuscript notes do not help a great deal: on the front free endpaper, we find that it was received by a M. Berin (or Barin?) professeur; the title-page bears the name of B.Duchamp from Remiremont, while an enclosed sheet of paper has the name of a M. Marsal, principal of the Collège de Blamont (Remiremont and Blamont being about 70km from one another). A note under the Avis again suggests it was presented to Berin, but we have been unable to decipher the rest. In any event, the manuscript is very finely presented in a single neat hand throughout. 

​

See Barbier vol III, column 499 for the Nouveau Dictionnaire. 

​

[ref: 2499 ]