
The building of a library is an intimate endeavor that reveals the deepest reaches of our intelligence to one who knows how to read it: in all its foundations, affinities, curiosity, complexity, diversity, secrets…
There is no complicity more powerful, nor more discreet, than that of a gaze cast across the shelves of a library. Presentation inscriptions, bookplates, armorial bindings, provenances: step inside illustrious libraries and share the intellectual intimacy of artists, scholars, writers, and the great figures of history and culture.
From Gutenberg to Robespierre, explore the golden ages of the book: incunabula, humanist editions, classical authors, Enlightenment philosophers, revolutionary works. A selection of books printed between 1450 and 1789, in first editions and fine period bindings.
Signed books and manuscripts by the author of Green Wheat, Claudine, Sido, La Chatte, The Blue Lantern...
The hour is not for poetry.
The hour is for poets.
To all those who preserve the voice of Humankind.
And to those who are made to fall silent.
To suspended time.
Au Phare, à l'Obus, aux Deux Eléphants, au Globe Doré... These famous Jules Verne elaborately decorated cloths are the finest publisher's bindings of the 19th century. Discover the extraordinary journey of the Editions Hetzel.
Despite Gutenberg's genius invention, manuscripts will never be erased by the printed word, and solid moveable types are evenly matched by fragile penned letters. Hasty or diligent writing, spidery scrawls or sign of the times.
They are called deluxe papers, limited editions, tirages de têtes or simply first editions. They were printed in small numbers on special paper and carefully preserved, from the very beginning, by the first readers and admirers of these literary geniuses. These copies are the origin of the work and its legacy.