English Moral Tales for Italian Children in France
[CHILDREN’S TALES.]
Novellette e racconti ai miei giovani bambini. [(Colophon:) Rambervillers, Mejeat for] Besançon, Antonio Montarsolo, [c. 1830].
[bound with:]
Il piccolo Pietro ossia La famiglia del Custode. Novelle morali tradotte dall’Inglese. [(Colophon:) Rambervillers, Mejeat for] Besançon, Antonio Montarsolo, [c. 1830].Two works in one vol., 8vo, Novellette: pp. [2], 175, [1, blank], with lithographic title-page and 8 woodcut plates (each containing two illustrations), Pietro: pp. 188, [2, preface], 189–210, with lithographic title-page, frontispiece, and 3 plates; some foxing to first work, otherwise very good copies; bound in contemporary blue-stained sheep with marbled sides and vellum tips, spine gilt-ruled in compartments and lettered directly in gilt, edges speckled blue; very slightly rubbed.
A pair of uncommon moral tales for children, both published in Besançon for the Italian community there, the second supposedly translated from an English original.
Besançon’s Italian community had a long history, with its strong mercantile connections to Genoa. Montarsolo, like many provincial booksellers, produced numerous schoolbooks and devotional and liturgical works, in both French and Italian; the latter were not only for the Italian community itself but also for those wishing to learn Italian. The printer Mejeat, however, was located in the town of Rambervillers, one hundred miles to the northeast of Besançon.
Very rare: we find copies of the Novellette dated to 1832 at the Bibliothèque nationale and at Providence Public Library, and another copy, undated, at the British Library. We have not located any other copies of Il piccolo Pietro.