Catalogue des Livres de la Bibliothèque de feu M. J.B.G. Haillet de Couronne, Ancien Lieutenant-Général Criminel au Baillage de Rouen, Secrétarie perpétuel honoraire de l'Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de la même Ville, Membre de l'Académie des Belles-Lettres de Caen, etc.

xvii, 311 pp. 8vo, cont. blue straight-grained half-morocco & paste-paper boards (upper joint a little wormed). Paris: Tilliard Frères, August 1811. A fine sale of 2325 lots, containing about 15,000 volumes, and priced throughout in a contemporary hand. The savant Haillet (1728-1810), a member of a distinguished noble family, formed a library particularly rich in natural history, geography, antiquities, literary history, and bibliography. We learn from the "Avertissement" that Haillet began to collect books at the age of 12 and ultimately formed a library amounting to 48,000 volumes. A fire at the Château de Couronne destroyed more than 16,000 volumes (and another 17,000 volumes or so were considered too damaged to be sold at the auction). He was well-known for his bibliographical expertise and left many scholarly notes regarding various bibliographical projects. Our copy has a contemporary note on the title stating that the sale took place in January and February of 1812. Fine copy and scarce. This copy does not have, as usual, the four-page schedule of the sale. ❧ Grolier Club, Printed Catalogues of French Book Auctions...1643-1830, 515. Horne, p. 708-"As M. Haillet not only possessed great taste for bibliography, but was also well skilled in that science; the class of literary history is the most numerous, and most of the works were illustrated by his notes.".