XVIIeme siècle. Institutions, usages et costumes. France 1590 - 1700

Second edition statement. Illustrated with 16 chromolithographs and 300 wood engravings (including 30 full-page plates) after monuments of the art of the period. Title page in red and black. Fine production by Didot, carefully executed in all aspects (typography, illustration, paper...). Publisher's red half-shagreen with corners, spine very richly decorated by Souze, and bound by Engel. Fillets on the boards. Corners rubbed, 2 small paper lacks to the boards (edges). Very pale halo from an old dampstain in the right margin of certain pages, but overall very fresh. Handsome copy with decorative appeal. The interest of the work is manifest both in its erudition and its accessibility and readability (historical anecdotes...). We owe it to Paul Jacob, who was a great bibliophile, writer and scholar, and curator of the Arsenal library. If the entire series has become a great classic in the field, it is because it successfully combines the work of publisher, printer, binder, historian, illustrators, and documentation, and few books have ultimately achieved this amalgamation that we owe to Firmin-Didot, at a time when books had become quite mediocre.