Bibliothèque en Miniature [MINIATURE LIBRARY c.1835]. Publication Date: 1835 Condition: Near Fine

Title: Bibliothèque en Miniature [MINIATURE LIBRARY...

Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères [for] Marcilly.

Publication Date: 1835

Binding: Hardcover

Book Condition: Near Fine

Edition: 1st Edition

6 volumes, each with 24 printed pages, one engraved title and one engraved plate (two short closed marginal tears without loss, short tear at top of spine in the Fables, some light sporadic foxing & a few minuscule corners creased). 45 x 70 mm. Original engraved eggshell blue, light card wrappers, in original slipcase with gilt spine (wrappers very slightly toned), slipcase sides in original marbled paper & spine in finely gilt-tooled calf. A typographical masterclass in miniature, originally intended for children, printed in Henri Didot's celebrated microscopic type, comprising Berquin's Variétés, Démoustier's Mythologie, Florian's Mélanges, La Fontaine's Fables, and poetry by Millevoye and Voltaire. In the nineteenth-century world of print, the Didot family were predominant owing to their significant innovations and commercial nous. François Didot established a reputation for typographical perfection, his son, François-Ambroise Didot, created the point system for sizing type, and his son, Firmin Didot, mastered the engraved roundhand. However, one of the greatest Didot family contributions to print can be attributed to Henri Didot, who, aged 66, cut his microscopic type, the miniscule font used in these books & mearuring 2.5pt (on his uncle's scale). The most revered publications using this type are La Rochefoucauld's Maximes (1827) and Horace's Opera omnia (1828), but its invention also produced these miniature books for children. Bondy, 75 ("six enticing volumes … by the Paris firm of Marcilly who were responsible for many of the most beautiful children s books of the period"); Gumuchian, 4062; Welsh, 1250. A beautiful 185 year old example of the Didot family's typographical pre-eminence, in near fine condition. Seller Inventory # 5214