Category Archives: prints and drawings

prints and drawings

To theovadēston oros tou Sēna

To theovadēston oros tou Sēna ([Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1699). Hand colored woodcut, 30.2 x 34.5 cm sheet 34.6 x 45.2 cm. Gift of Theodore Theodorou to the Program in Hellenic Studies for the Princeton University Library, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Hellenic Studies at Princeton. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired two prints thanks to the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund for the gift. Thanks go to Kalliopi Balatsouka for the translation and description of these works on paper.

Inscription in Greek runs from left to right at the upper part of the print: “To theovadēston oros tou Sēna.” Below the main scene, in 6 columns, there is a numbered list (from 1 to 56) of the events taking place in the print. In the last column, inscription in capital letters states: “Cahtzē Kirgēakis / Vourliotis Sēnaitēs / eneti – 1699: minē Iouliou.” In the far right, next to the last column, there is another tiny column with the inscription: “Hiero/mo/nach/ou Dio/nē/si(ou) hē … .” At the right corner below the main scene, a four-line inscription in Slavonic (?) is enclosed by a roughly square frame: “Hierodiakon Nikodēm … .”

This paper icon depicts a bird’s-eye view of Mount Sinai, including 56 scenes. The main composition of the print represents the Saint Catherine Monastery, the dormition of Saint Catherine, and Moses receiving God’s Law on Mount Sinai, divided into two symmetrical parts. To the upper left, predominates a scene of the Old Testament where Moses, according to the Book of Exodus, ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Tables of Law. To the upper right, a scene of New Testament, shows winged angels transporting the relic of the Great Martyr Saint Catherine from Alexandria, Egypt, to the highest mountain, now called Mount Saint Catherine, next to Mount Sinai, while a dove who carries a ring in his beak flys away from the Mountain.

Also acquired, thanks to a gift of the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund is the print below:

 

[Patriarch Gennadius II Scholarius and Sultan Mehmed II]. Text in Modern Greek, French, and Armenian ([Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], between 1901-1929. Lithograph. Gift of the Program in Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

The subjects of this Greek/Ottoman lithograph are Gennadius II, Patriarch of Constantinople, approximately 1405-approximately 1472 and Mehmed II, Sultan of the Turks, 1432-1481. The scene takes place after the appointment of Gennadius as Patriarch of Constantinople and certain privileges granted to the ecumenical patriarch by Mehmed II, the Conqueror, about the Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople in 1453.

Title is written in Turkish above the main scene of the lithograph as well as in Greek and French below, in two columns, with a laurel wreath in between bearing an inscription in Armenian. The Greek title to the left reads as follows: “Ho Soultanos Mōameth B’ ho porthētēs episemōs aponemei tō / Oikoumenikō Patriarchē Gennadiō tō Scholariō ta pro- / nomia tēs ekklēsias en etei 1453 (Antigraphon ex archaias eikonos)” and the French title: “Sultan Mohamed II vainqueur, de Constantinople offre / officiellement au patriarche œcuménique Yénnadios / scholarios les concessions ecclessiastiques. Année 1453.” “Euriskontai en tō typographeiō Lagopoulou Zoump[…] Chan ar. 6 (?).”

Women Vote!

Christine Heller, Women Vote!: Fifteen New York State Suffragists: in Celebration of the 2017 Centennial of Women’s Right to Vote in New York State ([New York (State)?] : Christine Heller, 2018). Copy 8 of 10. Graphic Arts Collection 2019- in process

Christine Heller’s limited edition portfolio Women Vote! celebrates suffragists who fought for 70 years to secure the vote for women. The project pairs lithographic images of fifteen suffragists with brief biographical texts printed in letterpress. Heller included well known suffragist leaders such as Susan B. Anthony as well as women who have been forgotten over time, one such example being Hester Jeffrey, who was a friend of Anthony’s and a leader who fought to improve the lives of African American women.

The artist was inspired by the courage and persistence of these suffragists and the determination of white and black women to work together despite occurrences of racism. She depicted the women with piercing eyes that challenge us to push back against the current erosion of women’s rights. Heller worked with the same palette that the suffragists chose to symbolize their movement: gold, which represented the guiding light of their cause, and purple, which signified an unshakable dedication to their mission.

The introduction to Women Vote!, which provides an overview of the larger struggle, was written by Susan Goodier, author of Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State. The portfolio was printed on Arches cover and includes lithographs produced by master printer Tim Sheesley from the artist’s original drawings. All text pages were printed letterpress by Maureen Cummins with typographic assistance from Kathleen McMillan. The typefaces are Della Robbia and Goudy Bookletter. The portfolio is housed in a shantung-covered clamshell box with gold-stamped titling, designed and crafted by Mark Tomlinson.


 

 

Printed wrappers designed by André Beaudin

Cover design by André Beaudin (1895-1979), here’s a short biography:

“French painter, sculptor, draughtsman, graphic artist, ceramicist and tapestry designer. He attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, from 1911, until he joined the army in 1915. After World War I he devoted himself primarily to painting. In 1922 he met Juan Gris with whose encouragement his early Matisse-influenced rhythmical compositions acquired greater stability. In the late 1920s he was promoted by Tériade as a successor to the Cubists, with such works as The Mirror (1929; Paris, Pompidou), in which a highly simplified figure and its mirror-image are defined by patches of flat colour and fragments of linear contrast, and by the 1940s he was seen as one of the major representatives of the Ecole de Paris. In the 1950s his earlier predilection for curvilinear shapes gave way to a more angular and dynamic geometry, as in the First Race (1952; Paris, Pompidou).

…From 1930 Beaudin produced a number of sculptures in bronze in which he adapted to three dimensions the geometric stylization of his paintings … He also illustrated a number of works, for example Virgil’s Bucoliques (published by Skira, Geneva, 1936), with original etchings; Paul Eluard’s Double d’ombre (Paris, 1945), with reproductions of drawings; Gérard de Nerval’s Sylvie (published by Tériade, Paris, 1960), with original colour lithographs.” –by Valerie Holman Grove Art Online https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T007130

Although we have a strong run of the Arts & Metiers Graphiques, no 62 was missing. Happily, we have again acquired this volume with a splendid cover.

See also: Paul Eluard’s Double d’ombre Graphic Arts Collection GAX Oversize NK8667.B42 E48q.

André Beaudin; œvres, 1921-1970 ([Paris, Centre national d’art contemporain, 1970]). Marquand Library ND553.B332 .C4

Paris 1937 / Expositions Internationales / New York 1939 (Paris: Arts & Metiers Graphiques, 1938). Cover design by Andre Beaudin and printed lithographically by “les presses de Mourlot Freres.” GAX – in process.

KWY

KWY: Revista trimestrial d’arte actual (Paris, [publisher not identified], [1958-1963]. No 1-12. French, English, and Portuguese. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019 in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection, along with our colleagues in Art history and French literature, recently acquired a complete run of the rare serial KWY. Each issue was editioned differently: no. 2 is a limited edition of 50 copies; no. 3 a limited edition of 85 copies; no. 4 a limited edition of 100 copies; no. 5 signed in pencil on back cover: 73/134; no. 6 a limited edition of 500 copies; no. 7-12 each a limited edition of 300 copies. Our no.1 is a facsimile while all the rest are original as issued.

A truly international publication, KWY was produced mainly with serigraphs and letterpress by Portuguese artists Lourdes Castro, René Bertholo, Antonio Costa Pinheiro, João Vieira, José Escada and Gonçalo Duarte and by Bulgarian Christo and the German Jan Voss. These artists gathered in Paris under the title “Le groupe KWY” focusing primarily on the production of the magazine from 1958 and 1964.

According to one source, the name KWY was chosen because these are the three letters that rarely appear in Portuguese words.

Various movements have been connected with this group, including Portuguese figuration and New Realism, the Fluxus spirit, the Spanish group El Paso and the lyricists and the experiences of the sound poetry. Issues also include work by António Areal, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Bernard Heidsieck, Yves Klein, and Jorge Martins, among others.

 

Portraits with Scottish Roasting-Jacks and Toasting-Forks.

John Kay (1742-1826), [Miss Burns] : Burns whose Beauty warms the age and fills our Youth with love & rage, no date [1801]. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00649

…Miss Burns was a professional harlot, the lawful daughter of a Durham merchant of the name of Matthews. She was in Edinburgh while Burns resided there in 1786-87. Some time afterwards she left the place, but returned again in 1789, and, with another young lady, set up a brothel in Rose Street. Being complained against, they were sentenced by Bailie William Creech to be banished the city; but, on 22nd December, the Court of Session passed a bill of suspension in their favour. Miss Burns died of consumption at Roslin in 1792.”– The Poetry of Robert Burns, Volume 2 (1905).

The London’s National Portrait Gallery adds: “Miss Burns, otherwise known as Miss Mathews, was a celebrated courtesan and beauty, who came to Edinburgh from Durham when her wealthy merchant father fell on hard times. She is shown by Kay as she appeared on her evening promenades, dressed in her fashionable finery. The stir she caused resulted in complaints from her scandalised neighbours. She was brought to court and sentenced to be banished from the city, and to be confined for 6 months in a house of correction should she return. The sentence was finally overturned on appeal.”

The Graphic Arts Collection holds a group of etchings by the Scottish barber-turned-artist John Kay (1742-1826). NPG calls John Kay a little known etcher, although many institutions in the United States have 100s of his prints. “Kay was an ex-barber and native of Edinburgh who turned to etching relatively late in life and produced many hundreds of original naïve and mostly humorous portraits of his fellow citizens.” Here are a few of ours.

 

John Kay (1742-1826), [Rev. Dr. John Erskine], 1793. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00652

The name John Erskine (1721-1803) may not be familiar to the modern Christian world, but to his friends and colleagues he was the leading Calvinist clergyman of the Church of Scotland during much of the eighteenth-century. Despite his family’s desire for him to follow his father’s path in law and manage the eventual inheritance of a large estate in Carnock and Torryburn, he began his career as a preacher in the town of Kirkintilloch (1744-1753). As the leader of the Popular party, he opposed patronage in favor of a popular vote for ministers and would later serve at Edinburgh’s New Greyfriars (1758-1767) and Old Greyfriars (1767-1803). — http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/review/enlightened-evangelicalism-the-life-and-thought-of-john-erskine

John Kay (1742-1826), [John Wemyss (died 1788), Town crier; Robert Clerk (1738-1810), Book seller and publisher; George Pratt (active 1784), Town crier. ca.1784]. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00651

John Wemyss, the figure on the left, was, as the Print denotes, one of the Town Criers, and colleague of the eccentric and consequential George Pratt. He had formerly been a respectable dyer; but, owing to some reverses in business, he was reluctantly compelled to abandon the trade; and, from necessity, had recourse to the calling in which he is here represented. He was for many years officer to the Incorporation of Bonnet-makers, for which he received the sum of fifty shillings a-year!

…Mr Robert Clerk, the centre figure, was for many years a bookseller and publisher in the Parliament Square. His father, John Clerk, a printer, was said to have been descended from Alexander Clark, Lord Provost of the city of Edinburgh at the commencement of the seventeenth century. …Although at that period the book trade of Edinburgh was comparatively limited, he succeeded in establishing a profitable business—having a good many bookbinders employed—and latterly engaging in several fortunate speculations as a publisher.–A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, Volume 2, Part 1 (1838)

“Now for your quarters and Shoulders of Mutton or Lamb Geese and turkeys, any more a Wanting my hearty ones. What are you all asleep nous [sic] your time. I leave this City tomorrow & have Sold Sixteen Hundred down all well prov’d well try’d the last one now.” He says “Nice rrrRoasting Jacks and toasting Forks.”

McBain had been a soldier. Receiving no pension on retiring from the army, he became a manufacturer of roasting-jacks for turning meat and toasting-forks. He sold these on the streets of the city, singing his ‘roasting, toasting’ ditty. In old age he was admitted to the workhouse, but at 96 was expelled after becoming intimate with the elderly nurse. They married, and he returned to selling roasting-jacks, before being readmitted to the workhouse where he died aged 102.–NPG

 

John Kay (1742-1826), Lauchlan McBain, 1791. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2005.02049

 

John Kay (1742-1826), Travells eldest son in conversation with a Cherokee chief, 1791. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00650

The taller (left), … is James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller whose ‘Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, 1768-1773’, appeared in 1790. The other is Williamson, an Edinburgh bookseller and tavern-keeper, who had published an account of his adventures in America: ‘French and Indian Cruelty exemplified in the Life of Peter Williamson’, 1757, &c, and compiled the first Edinburgh directory (1773).

Their words are engraved beneath the design: ‘[J. B.] How dare you approach me with your travells. There is not a single word of them true. [P. W.] There you may be right, and aliho I never dined upon the Lion or eat half a Cow and turned the rest to grass, yet my works have been of more use to mankind than yours and there is more truth in one page of my Edinh directory than in all your five Volumes 40. So when you talk to me dont imagine yourself at the Source of the Nile!’ –British Museum

 

See also: John Kay, A series of original portraits and caricature etchings. With biographical sketches and illustrative anecdotes (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1877). Marquand Library NE642.K18 A3

George the Third

What does it say about us that we have eight boxes of George Washington portrait engravings and only a handful of George III caricatures? This is now slightly improved with the acquisition of two formal full-length mezzotint portraits of King George III (1738-1820, Reigned 1760-1820).

[top] Gainsborough Dupont (1754-1797), after Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), George the Third, King of Great Britain &c. &c. &c., [Published December 30 1790 by Gainsborough Dupont No 87 Pall Mall]. Mezzotint, proof before all letters. The original painting, completed 1781, is in the Royal Collection, Hampton Court. Graphic Arts Collection 2019-in process

Gainsborough Dupont was the eldest son of Thomas Gainsborough’s sister, Sarah and Philip Dupont. He apprenticed to his uncle 1772-79; entered RA Schools 1775; remained in Gainsborough’s studio, producing studio replicas, mezzotints and oil copies, until his uncle’s death in 1788 when he inherited studio properties.

[below] James Ward (1769-1859) after painting by Sir William Beechey (1753-1839), His most Gracious Majesty George III, on his Favourite Charger Adonis. Dedicated to the Queen’s most excellent Majesty; By Her faithful and devoted Servant, John P. Thompson. London, Re Published Feb.y 6th 1811 by J.P. Thompson, G.t Newport Street, Printseller to his Majesty and the Duke & Duchess of York. Mezzotint with separately-printed title. Graphic Arts Collection 2019-in process.

There are several variations on this mezzotint, George III alone; George III with Adonis; George, Adonis and others; Adonis alone, etc.

Adonis

[left] Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), George Washington after the Battle of Princeton, 1779–82. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, bequest of Charles A. Munn, Class of 1881. The 1784 companion to this hangs on the southern wall of the Faculty Room in Nassau Hall, George Washington at the Battle of Princeton also painted by Charles Willson Peale. Popular legend maintains that the gilded frame holding this portrait once contained a painting of King George II before a cannonball fired from Alexander Hamilton’s battery during the Battle of Princeton decapitated the King as it crashed through one of the windows of Nassau Hall.

What will the world look like in 2000?

Unidentified artist after Charles Jameson Grant (active 1830-1852), The Century of Invention. Anno Domini 2000. Or the March of Aerostation, Steam and Perpetual Motion, [1832-1838?]. Paper on linen. Ex 9253.145f

Charles Jameson Grant (active 1830-1852), The Century of Invention Anno Domini 2000 or the march of aerostation, steam, rail roads, moveable houses & perpetual motion, [1832-1838?] Lithograph. Ex 9253.145F

A scrapbook in Princeton’s McCormick Collection of Aeronautica holds two versions of a rare design by Charles Grant imagining what the world will be like in the year 2000. One is a small lithograph and the other a larger reproduction laterally reversed and pasted on linen. The scene is clearly inspired by William Heath’s March of Intellect series of prints [below] published around 1828, making fun of the Society for the Dissemination of Useful Knowledge, established in 1826.

 

“To-morrow evening, 3rd Inst. A cast iron parson will preach by steam at fudge chapel”

 

Steam, cast-iron, wind and solar power are all celebrated amidst a general cacophony of speeding travelers. Science and industry have triumphed in all modes of transport, as well as daily life. The coal mines in the North are nearly exhausted, we are told, and a new Blackheath mine will be opened to satisfy demand.

 

Balloons are becoming passé, now that people are flying with their own wings. Cars, trains, and buses are driven by children as well as adults. Inventions are everywhere and there is still one live horse!

According to wikipedia, “In 1807, French engineers Nicéphore Niépce (who went on to invent photography) and Claude Niépce ran a prototype internal combustion engine, using controlled dust explosions, the Pyréolophore. This engine powered a boat on the Saône river, France. The same year, the Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an internal combustion engine ignited by an electric spark. In 1823, Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially.”

Good Morning to you. Lovely weather for a Fly.

The print was also published in Caricature Magazine no. 3, February 1, 1834, so we assume these prints come from the same time.

Establishment for cast-iron glass. Warranted not to crack – established 1934

 

Good morning Sir, taking an airing before Breakfast. Aye, merely a trip to Dublin & back-again for an Appetite.

Pulled for a writing seminar investigating the rise of self-driving cars and their implications in fields as varied as philosophy, law, engineering, and computer science.

 

Alan James Robinson

Mark Twain, The Jumping Frog. Wood engravings by Alan James Robinson (Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1985). Copy 10 of 15 state proof copies, with one extra signed suite of the 15 wood engravings plus the triple page fold out of the jumping front, plus working proofs of the wood engravings, plus state proofs of etching, signed and numbered by the artist. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

 

 

This Cheloniidae edition of the Jumping Frog from Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old (1875) contains three versions of this notorious and celebrated tale: the original, the version translated into French (inadequately so, according to Twain), and the version “restored to the English after martyrdom in the French” by Twain. The afterword, “The Private Printing of the ‘Jumping Frog’ Story” by Samuel Clemens, first appeared in the North American Review (1894).

The regular edition was limited to 250 copies and is bound in green paper wrappers, while all editions are printed on Saunders paper in Centaur and Arrighi types at Wild Carrot Letterpress with the assistance of Harold Patrick McGrath and Arthur Larson.

The 15 wood engravings are printed by Harold Patrick McGrath and bound by Daniel Kelm (the design of Alan Robinson) full undyed Oasis with onlays of the frog in repose — before the jump on the front panel and after the jump on the back panel, with doublures showing the frog in mid-jump. Onlays in green oasis of the frog jumping are on the front and back pastedowns.

Pug the Painter, satire of Hogarth

Pug the Painter Following the Example of Messrs Scumble Asphaltum & Varnish. … [at foot]: To the Despisers of all pretended Connoisseurs & all Imitators (but those of Nature) this plate is most humbly dedicated … [London], [ca. 1754-1757]. Etching and dry point (289 x 214 mm). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this rare print, designed after William Hogarth’s self-portrait, ca. 1757 [left] and originally sold in a portfolio under the title “The Caricatures on Hogarth by Paul Sandby,” further labelled “Retrospective Art, from the Collection of the late Paul Sandby, Esq. R.A.,” priced M. 6s (note, on this sheet the 1s/price partly erased). While no longer attributed to Sandby, the print makes a fascinating and complex satirical attack on Hogarth. Frederic Stephens’s 1877 Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum explains:

“3277. “Pug the Painter following the example of Mess” Scumble Asphaltum & Warnish.” “O imitatores servum pecus * [By Paul Sandby.] Publish’d according to Act of Parliament … [1754]. An etching; on a pedestal which is decorated with a wigged and spectacled head of “Ignorance & self conceit”, and inscribed “THE IDEA Box of A coxoissevil”, is seated an ape, painting “Moses striking the Rock”, a picture in the manner of Rembrandt. He is exclaiming, “A marrellous effect by G—d”.

Behind him is a book inscribed, “A Journal of my trarels from Rome to Rotterdam I had the supreme happiness of touching Raphael scu LL that dirine scroll”.

… On a table are the “100 Gilder print” rolled up, and an open book, named “Shakespear alter’d by T. Tasteless FRS thou Nature art NoT my Goddess”.

Stephens makes the suggestion that Philip Dawe or Dawes (died 1832) was responsible for this print. Dawe was a British printmaker who lived at the same time as Hogarth, known for his mezzotints and political caricature but the suggestion has not been accepted by others.

The text refers to quotations from Horace: “O imitators, servum pecus” (Imitators, a servile herd) and the opening words of the aphorism “Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque revenit” (Though you may drive out nature with a pitchfork, she will nonetheless return).

Hogarth’s attacks on amateur gentleman connoisseurs and his frustration at the privileging of Old Masters are alluded to by placing the central figure on a plinth with the motto “The Idea Box of a Connoisseur.” Beneath the design is engraved: “To the Despisers of all pretended Connoisseurs & all Imitators (but those of Nature) this plate is most humbly dedicated.”

This animosity towards amateurs is mocked by representing Hogarth as an amateur himself, referring to his rejection of the ‘Raphaelite’ style and implying that this results from Hogarth’s own lack of taste.

An owl, labelled A Compleat Connoisseur, sits on a volume titled Odes to Dullness and  speaks to the painter, “I think Mr Pug, you may keep down your Sky a little more.” One claw holds a note that reads “A Catalogue of some Capital pictures lately consigned from abroad.” Bags of money sit below.

 

 

The print comes with with a statement by the dealer, “Pug the Painter attempts to construct an artistic identity for Hogarth based upon notions of incompetence, hypocrisy and artifice. It takes the painter’s objections to academic painting, and inverts this to cast Hogarth as a bad painter, incapable of achieving the visual perfection of nature.”

At the same time, Graphic Arts acquired this early broadside catalogue of Hogarth prints.


Jane Hogarth (1711-1789), A Catalogue of Hogarth’s Original Works. To be had of Mrs. Hogarth, at her house, at the Golden Head, Leicester Fields. London, 1784. Handbill (335 x 207 mm). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

In 1767 William Hogarth’s widow Jane Hogarth, who owned his copper plates, was granted a further twenty years of copyright by Parliament. In January 1783 Jane Hogarth announced in the Daily Advertiser that the plates she was reprinting had not been retouched since her husband’s death (Paulson, Hogarth Graphic Works, pp. 19-20).

This broadside catalogue of prints available from Jane not only lists the prints and the series, sizes, and prices, but several measurements are corrected by a contemporary hand. A folio of all prints is also offered, “By Purchasing the Whole together they will be delivered for Thirteen Guineas,” as is the book, Analysis of Beauty. Only the British Library and Yale University hold other copies of the sheet.

“The following extract is from John Rocque’s map of 1746, three years before Hogarth purchased the house. The map shows the house to the northwest of the village of Chiswick, the last in the lane approaching Chiswick Common Field. I have circled the house in red.”–https://alondoninheritance.com/london-characters/hogarths-house/

Is it Blanche of Castile or Christina of Sweden, or just a representation of courage?

Charles de, baron d’Auteuil Combault. Blanche Infante De Castille (Paris: A. de Sommaville 1644). Four parts in one volume. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

In the year 1200, the twelve-year-old Prince Louis of France was married to Blanca de Castilla, then aged eleven. Her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, traveled to Castile in order to accompany her granddaughter to the wedding. Twice regent of France, Blanche reigned for some eight years between 1226 and 1234, when her son, Louis IX, came of age and again from 1248 to 1252 when her son went away on Crusade.

Dealer’s note:
Only edition of this feminist life of the virago Queen Blanche of Castile (1188-1252). She raised three armies to defend France, assembled two fleets to invade England, suppressed internal revolts, negotiated with hostile powers, exchanged territory to political advantage, secured the throne for her son Louis IX through diplomacy and force, governed France while he led the Seventh Crusade, patronized the arts, collected books, and protected the Jews. In his opening essay, Combault (1588-1670) advocates women as heads of state.

Proverbs 31:26 phe os suum aperuit sapientiae et lex clementiae in lingua eius = She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue

This marvelous frontispiece was designed by the French artist Grégoire Huret.

Kirsti Andersen, The Geometry of an Art (2008) writes “The draughtsman and engraver Grégoire Huret (1610-1670)-—an academician who was also close to the king—-took over Bosse’s lectures at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture… . In 1670, Huret published Optique de portraiture et peinture (Optics of Portraying and Painting) in which he expressed great concern about the state of the art, particularly criticizing Bosse’s book from 1665 and previous publications on Desargues’s method.”

Note, the same allegorical print is used again in 1658 [below] for this book dedicated to Christina of Sweden (1625-1689), published in Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654), Aristippe ou de la cour (A Paris: chez Augustin Courbé, au Palais, en la Galerie des Merciers, à la Palme, 1658). The bottom text has been burnished out and the new book title engraved.

 

 

Ungherini, Manuel de bibliographie … des femmes célèbres I: 77
Chevalier, Répertoire des sources…du Moyen âge. Bio-bibliographie I: 610
Cioranescu 8987 (“4 vols.”).

“Animos curasque induta viriles”  ? She represents masculine courage