PERRAULT, Charles - Lot 31

PERRAULT, Charles The Labyrinth of Versailles Paris, De l'imprimerie royale, 1679 ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKS ON GARDENS, AND ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF THE FAMOUS KING'S CABINET SERIES. A FINE COPY IN GILDED MOROCCO. Second edition. Identical in every respect to the first (1677), except for the numbering engraved in the plates, which is reserved for the second edition. The Labyrinte de Versailles forms the second part of the sixth volume of the King's Cabinet. In-8 (205 x 135 mm). Engraved vignette with the royal coat of arms printed on the title page. COLLATION: 3-34 pp, (3 ff. n. ch.), 1-79 pp, 2 ff. n. ch. CONTENTS: title, text: Description du Labyrinte de Versailles, Explication du plan du Labyrinte et Plan du Labirinthe (sic), 1 blank f., frontispiece, text and plates, tables ILLUSTRATION: 1 engraving of the Plan du labirinthe de Versailles (sic), 40 etchings by Sébastien Le Clerc, hors-texte, bearing the corresponding page number in the engraving CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Red morocco, gilt decoration, royal arms in the center of the boards with the words "Donné par le Roy en 1780" on the first board, long spine decorated with the crowned royal cipher, gilt edges. PROVENANCE: Paris, December 2, 2004, no. 175 Spine restored, slight stain on part of the first plate extending to the second, some foxing. These thirty-nine prose fables by Charles Perrault, after Aesop, are accompanied by comments on the rocks, trellises, fountains and other green cabinets. They formed the famous Versailles labyrinth that Louis XIV loved to show visitors. Designed by Le Nôtre, Le Brun, Perrault and La Fontaine, the Labyrinthe should have been created for Nicolas Fouquet at Vaux. After his disgrace in 1661, the King took over the project for Versailles. He dismissed poor La Fontaine, who had defended his patron. The Labyrinthe was thus built between 1664 and 1672 to a design by Le Nôtre. It was destroyed during the reign of Louis XVI and replaced by the Bosquet de la Reine. The original site included thirty-nine fountains decorated with lead figures painted to designs by Charles Le Brun. Reproduced in gold lettering on these sculptures were the quatrains from the fables of Benserade, a fashionable writer and protégé of Richelieu and Mazarin, who had a famous quarrel with Voiture. Molière criticized Benserade in his Sicilien. These were the years 1664-1672, when La Fontaine conceived his own Fables. This is one of Sébastien Le Clerc's beautifully illustrated works. It is preceded by Perrault's introduction and commentary, published as part of the Cabinet du Roi collection celebrating the great achievements of the Sun King's reign. Following the engraved plan, the forty plates show the astonishing detail of the botanical and architectural compositions imagined by Louis XIV's architects. "Among all the Bocages du petit Parc de Versailles," writes Perrault in the preface, "celuy qu'on nommme le Labyrinte, est sur tout recommandable par la nouveauté du dessein, & par le nombre & la diversité de ses Fontaines. ... afin que ceux qui s'y perdent, puissent se perdre agréablement, il n'y a pas de détour qui ne présente plusieurs Fontaines en mesme temps à la veûë, en sorte qu'à chaque pas on est surpris par quelque nouveau objet." The numbering of the plates follows the numbering of the fountains as fixed on the engraved plan, so that this superb book served as a guide for the visitor: the order of the pages follows the geometrical order of the walk. Along with Aldus' Poliphile (1499), Le Labyrinthe is one of the great programmatic works in the history of gardens: in each case, the flourishing arts of the time (poetry, sculpture, music) are combined with rare harmony in a hermeneutic revealed from the outset by a refined book. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Brunet, III, col. 723 -- Tchemerzine, IX, p. 167 (this 1679 edition) -- I.F.F. XVIIe, IX, 2818-2858 -- Hofer, Baroque Book Illustration, no. 57: "the illustrations prefigure the etchings of Gillot and the elegant mood of the XVIIIth century" -- marquis de Ganay, Bibliographie de l'art des jardins, 29_.