MANUSCRIPT. — Album containing 123 copper engravings accompa - Lot 105

MANUSCRIPT. — Album containing 123 copper engravings accompanied by approximately 140 pages of handwritten text. No place, no date [late 17th century–early 18th century]. Oblong quarto, red morocco leather, decorated in the Du Seuil style, coat of arms in the center, ornate spine, gilt edges (contemporary binding). Album bearing the coat of arms of the Duke of Orléans, adorned with 123 beautiful intaglio engravings depicting scenes from Greco-Roman mythology, with dual captions in Latin and German, accompanied by a text explaining the myths of various figures, heroes, or gods: Actaeon, Narcissus, Bacchus, Jupiter, Juno, Pyramus and Thisbe, Andromeda and Perseus, Medusa, Achilles, Diana’s boar, Midas, Jason, Medea, Theseus, Daedalus and Icarus, Hercules, Orpheus, etc. The text is written on watermarked paper (two different watermarks). About twenty pages of text are not accompanied by any illustrations, and it is possible that some plates were removed from the volume. There is an old red chalk sketch on the verso of a text page, depicting a winged Victory holding a shield bearing the arms of France, with the following inscription in a cartouche: *Victricibus armis Lodoici Imperatoris Francorum Ludovicus*. Water stains on a few plates and text pages; a crease on one plate; the last plate is heavily damaged and has been re-edged. The binding is stained and scuffed, with some restorations.

Estimate:$1,147.84

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