Catalogue des Livres de la Bibliothèque de feu M Le Duc de la Vallière Première partie contenant les manuscrits, les premières éditions, les livres imprimés sur vélin & sur grand papier, les livres rares, & précieux par leur belle conservation, les livres d'estampes, etc dont la vente se fera dans les premiers jours du mois de décembre 1783.
1783. Paris: chez Guillaume de Bure fils aîné, 1783.
3 vols., 8vo, lxiv, 71 (additions), 602; 758; 388, 376, 92, x, 90 pp. Frontispiece portrait, one folding engraved plate, and four facsimile plates. Modern boards, a good set with the Supplement to Volume I and priced throughout in ink in a contemporary hand.
§ First edition of this important collection which sold for a staggeringly high price. A second part of the catalogue appeared in 1788, in 6 volumes. Jonathan Hill notes of one of his sets: “the celebrated catalogue of the first part of the most important book and manuscript collection of the 18th century. The catalogue, prepared by De Bure and Van Praet, contains MSS., noteworthy incunabula, and books printed on vellum or large paper. Their descriptions influenced French and English book collectors and bibliographers for several generations. The sale, consisting of 5668 lots, made the enormous sum of 464,677 liv. 8 s." "The manuscripts constitute an amazing collection of early French poetry and romances." Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 248... Brunet, II, 554. Peignot, pp. 128-29. Pollard & Ehrman no. 297.”. Item #106862
Price: $1,250.00