Recently acquired rare and antiquarian books - October 2010

Arriving soon in Special Collections...

Nomesseius, Nicolaus, Guglielmo Facciotti, and Pietro Antonio Lanza. Parnassus poeticus Nicolao Nomeseio Charmensi Lotharingio auctore: In quo phrases omnes poeticae, ex illustribus poetis collectae, & in certa capita distributae, ita leguntur, vt nihil a poeticae studiosis illustrius desiderari possit. Milan: P. Pontii & J.B. Picalaum, 1601.

Very early edition of this dictionary-like manual for poets, where one choses a term (love, water, etc.), under which are many citations from classical sources. It is in a nice vellum binding with ties, and in very good condition. This edition is not listed in OCLC; the only earlier edition is Rome, 1595-96, although it was reprinted several times during the 17th century. 

L'Alouëte, Francois de. Des affaires d'estat: des finances, du prince et de sa noblesse. A Mets: Par Iean d'Arras, 1597.

A rare treatise on government  by the Protestant jurist Francois de L'Alouette (1530-1606),  published for the first time in 1595. L’Alouette offers a model for monarchy, for the education of kings and princes. Divided into three books, the first 2 books  concern the French monarchy, while the third focuses on the nobility.

Le Clerc, Sébastien. Divers costumes français du règne de Louis XIV - Les figures à la mode dédiées à M. le Duc de Bourgogne. Paris, Audran, (1685-1698 ). Plates 12 x 8 cm. tipped in and bound in blue full leather with gold, in slip case.

 A full collection of 20 engravings, almost all from the first state plus  later states and three undescribed and unique engravings, according to a manuscript note. Sébastien Le Clerc, (Metz, 1637- Paris, 1740) was a professor of perspective at the Académie Royale de peinture, and the most representative engraver during the reign of Louis XIV. This will be shelved in the Art Library.

Zabarella, Jacopo, conte, Il giovane. fl. 1620-1669. Il Corelio. Padua, P. Frambotto 1664. 4to. [viii], 80p. 38 facsimile stone inscriptions, eleven woodcuts of coins, engraved title cartouche with war weeds & the Este arms.

 The sole edition of this illustrated account of the Este and of the Venetian Correr families, this work documents their history from Roman times. Monumental and numismatic

evidence, etymologies, archaeology and archives are all described, while the narrative

lists the family’s accomplishments at arms, in the Church and in the arts.

Wednesday primary source #18 - True Crime!

POLICE-MAGAZINE. Paris. Complete run: No. 1 (Dec. 1, 1930) through No. 450 (1939); bound in annual volumes.

At the end of the summer, Stanford was fortunate to acquire a complete run of the French illustrated "true crime" magazine from the 1930s, Police-Magazine.

Police-Magazine was part of a genre whose most well-known titles were Détective (published by Gallimard during the same years), and the earlier Le Petit Parisien, and L’Illustration, the latter two focusing less on criminal sensationalism. We have microfilm runs of the latter two; this is now the only set of Police-Magazine in North America. This periodical, aimed at a working class audience, is heavily illustrated, and serves as a valuable addition to SULAIR’s holdings on the turbulent 1930s in France. In addition to the journals above, it complements holdings in graphic novels and comics, our collection of the French crime fiction series Masque, and other works of interwar French fiction, politics, and crime. Paging through, I was struck by the number of female authors. While many of the contributors are now forgotten, this magazine contained at least one early serialized story Georges Simenon, and also probably provided him with ample inspiration for his novels.

From the vendor's notes: "Police-Magazine reported on a mix of organized crime, political and social scandal, titillating sexual and romantic misdeeds, urban vices such as gambling and prostitution, daring thefts from the rich, and grand guignol acts of violence -- all enhanced with photos (frequently retouched to increase the shock value) and with sleazy illustrations. For much of the run, the photo editors also went out of their way to publish pictures of young and strikingly good-looking criminals of both sexes -- often with nothing more than a caption noting that the individual had committed some petty misdemeanor.
The mix of articles is weighted toward coverage of Paris and the Paris region, but also includes reports on crimes in other French cities and towns and in rural areas of France, as well as in other European countries, the United States and elsewhere."