Chronologie Et Sommaire Des Souverains Pontifes Anciens Peres, Empereurs, Roys, Princes, Et Hommes Illustres dés le commencement du monde, jusques à l'an de grace mil six cens vingtdeux

Paris: Antoine Saultereau, 1631. Contemporary gilt red morocco à la Du Seuil (scuffed, front stained, hinges and corners neatly repaired), marbled pastedowns, blank free endleaves, gilt-lettered spine and title, all edges gilt.

THIS BEAUTIFUL AND COMPLEX HYBRID BOOK BINDS ART, COLLECTING, INSTRUCTION AND ENTERTAINMENT. Carefully planned and neatly assembled, it could serve artists, curiosity cabinet owners and children of wealthy families. It draws on coins, medals, statuary, paintings, architecture, manuscripts and printed books like Sainte-Marthe's biographies, Rouillé's Promptuaire and the bibliographies of Du Verdier and Gesner.
     The present example spans Eastern and Western rulers, biblical figures, intellectuals, statesmen, nobles, clerics and pagan gods. It includes the most celebrated series, Famous Frenchmen since 1500 (cut by Léonard Gaultier, no. 18) with portraits of, i.a., Vesalius, Erasmus, Nostradamus, Budé, Alciati, Mercator, Ortelius, Thevet, Rabelais, Ronsard, Robert Estienne, Plantin, Garamond - and notably, THE ONLY KNOWN LIKENESSES OF ARTISTS FRANÇOIS CLOUET AND GERMAIN PILON.
     The Chronologie collée, or "glued history", is an ingenious dodge. Print dealers skirted the law barring them from selling codices by commissioning broadsides of numbered intaglio portraits, broadsides of numbered letterpress lives and support sheets, blank, or, as here, with elaborate fleuron frames. The illustrations and text were cut into strips, matched and mounted to create bespoke illustrated biographical folios, available singly or in combinations. The cut-and-paste operation could be done by a print dealer, binder, buyer, or, as likely here, by a purveyor of personal luxury items and interior furnishings like marchand-mercier Antoine Saultereau.
     The three components - intaglio, letterpress and support - could be produced as needed, and this volume shows the work of several shops over some years. One suite (21) shows four generations of letterpress. Conversely, fleuron frames tie fourteen series to the same press (1, 4, 5- 6, 8-9, 12, 14-20).
     The series are (in order): 1. Hebrew Patriarchs (112 portraits, 9 leaves total), 2. Sibyls (12 ports., 8ff.), 3. Pagan Gods and Goddesses (59 ports., 9ff.), 4. Persian Kings and Queens (53 ports., 13ff.), 5. Roman Emperors (295 ports., 25ff.), 6. Rulers of Constantinople (84 ports., 13ff.), 7. Popes (247 ports., 13ff.), 8. French Kings and Queens (158 ports., 2 coats of arms, 23ff.), 9. Spanish Kings and Queens (185 ports., 25ff.), 10. English Kings (138 ports., 11ff.), 11. Portuguese Kings and Queens (47 ports., 11ff.), 12. Rulers of Naples (29 ports., 15ff.), 13. Polish Kings (45 ports., 7ff.), 14. Rulers of Savoy (59 ports., 13 views, 9ff.), 15. Venetian Doges (96 ports., 13ff.), 16. Dukes of Brabant (93 ports., 13ff.), 17. Masters of the Knights of St. John (55 ports., 13ff.), 18. Famous Frenchmen (144 ports., 13ff.), 19. Chancellors of France (99 ports., 13ff.), 20. Jurists of Roman Law (66 ports., 9ff.), 21. Latin (and Neo-Latin) Poets (96 ports., 9ff.), 22. Universal Chronology (text only, 23ff.).
     Contemporary title inscription of Courtin de Rozay, bookplate and stamps of connoisseur François-César Le Tellier, marquis de Courtanvaux (1718-1781), Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague, comtesse de Béarn (1870-1939) and by descent to marquis Hubert de Ganay. In fine condition.
¶Lipperheide, Katalog der...Kostümbibliothek Ab4; Zerner, "Lettre à Margret à propos de la Chronologie Collée" in Correspondances: Festschrift für Margret Stuffmann zum 24. November 1996 ed. Bauereisen (1996) 1-89; see Duportal's Contribution au catalogue général des livres à figures du XVIIe siècle 461 and Brunet I: 1891 & Suppl. II: 836.