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4to. 24 cm. [8], 45, [3] pp. 72 double-sided plates. Dedication signed: Du Fresne. With a special added engraved title page preceding the plates, with the title: Briefve Histoire de l'Institution de toutes les Religions, avec leurs habits granez par Odard Fialetti . . . 1658. Each plate has engraved descriptive text on facing page, printed on verso of preceding plate. Contemporary red turkey morocco, gilt-stamping and spine; neat restoration to spine, corner bumped. Stamp on title and rear: Le Mrs. [Marquis] de Courtanvaux (Le Tellier, Marquis de Courtanvaux, Francois-Cesar) (1718-1781). CHOICE COPY, IN A BEAUTIFUL CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Rare. First printing of an important book showing 72 standard costumes worn for 72 religious orders, mostly Italian orders, seventeenth century. There is a section devoted to the east and one plate to an order in India. Odoardo Fialetti, whose real name was Edouard Viallet, provided the remarkable engravings. The dedicatory epistle is addressed to Pierre de La Porte, first valet de chambre of Louis XIV. / Trichet du Fresne, described as erudite, he took his education at the College de Guyenne, Paris. While working for the brother of Louis XIII, Gaston d'Orleans (1608-60), he acquired works of art on buying excursions. He began his career as a bookseller before becoming corrector at the newly established Imprimerie du Roi in 1640. In 1651 he published Leonardo da Vinci's treatise on painting, Trattato della pittura, which had circulated in manuscript form. His Trattato contained an early biography of Leonardo and Alberti and contained a list of books at the end, forming the first annotated bibliography of art literature (Dictionary of Art Historians). After the death of Naude he was appointed librarian of Queen Christina of Sweden. His own library comprised about 10,000 volumes. Colbert acquired his manuscripts from his widow, Francoise Duvivier, for the Royal Library for 27,700 livres. The printed books were bought by Nicolas Fouquet, after whose disgrace and imprisonment they were confiscated and incorporated into the Royal Library in 1665. When, in 1651, the Swedish Queen abdicated and emigrated to Italy, Trichet followed her to Rome. REFERENCES: Blechet, p.59; Pollard & Ehrman, Table XXV; Taylor, p. 265ff. See: Smith, Paul J. "COGNITION IN EMBLEMATIC FABLE BOOKS: AEGIDIUS SADELER'S THEATRUM MORUM(1608)AND ITS RECEPTION IN FRANCE (1659â "1743)," Within: Cognition and the Book: Typologies of Formal Organisation of Knowledge in the Printed Book of the Early Modern Period; Series: Intersections, Volume: 4. 2005. EXTRA POSTAGE WILL APPLY.
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