Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de M. De Boze

Engraved headpiece. 1 p.l., x, 552 pp. 8vo, cont. mottled sheep (some rubbing & minor wear), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: G. Martin et al., 1753. The posthumously issued inventory catalogue - prepared for an en bloc sale - of the famous collection formed by Claude Gros de Boze (1680-1753), the renowned academician and savant. It was an excellent library, notable for its block books and incunabula, including a Gutenberg Bible (lot 18); this catalogue provides the best idea of its contents. Following the publication of the catalogue, two collectors - Boutin and Cotte - purchased the whole library, retaining the books which they desired for their own collections and selling certain precious incunabula to Gaignat. They then turned over the remainder to Gabriel Martin to sell by auction the following year. Our copy of the 1753 catalogue, which Archer Taylor considered to be one of Gabriel Martin's best efforts, contains valuations in a contemporary hand alongside each lot. Fine copy. ❧ Brunet, I, 1642. Gustave Brunet, Dictionnaire de Bibliologie Catholique, col. 424. Roland Folter, "The Gutenberg Bible in the Antiquarian Book Trade," in Incunabula. Studies in Fifteenth-Century Printed Books presented to Lotte Hellinga, p. 275. Grolier Club, Printed Catalogues of French Book Auctions...1643-1830, 104. Peignot, pp. 83-84. Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 233.