French Book Arts: Manuscripts, Books, Bindings, Prints, and Documents, 12th - 21st Century

Celebrating a thousand years of French Book Arts, this catalogue’s 159 entries are scrupulously annotated and contextualized by the award-winning scholar and curator H. George Fletcher. Drawn from the Grolier Club’s permanent collections, and representing artifacts from the libraries of such important figures as Madame Pompadour, Marie Antoinette, Count Hoym, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and Adolf Hitler, the items make up a treasure trove–from a magnificent twelfth-century manuscript of Gregory the Great’s commentary on Job to recent artists’ books and designer book bindings. Highlights include manuscript and printed illuminated Books of Hours, early printed books, bindings from seven centuries, a letter from Jefferson to his Parisian bookseller, portrait prints of the great and the good, commemorative medals, and documents.