‘THE FIRST CHILDREN’S BOOKS’
ESTIENNE, Charles.
De re vestiaria libellus, ex Bayfio excerptus: addita vulgaris linguae interpretatione, in adulesce[n]tuloru[m] gratiam atq[ue] utilitatem. Secunda editio.
Paris, Robert Estienne, 1536.
[Bound with:]
—. De vasculis libellus, adulescentulorum causa ex Bayfio decerptus, addita vulgari Latinarum vocum interpretatione. Paris, Robert Estienne, 1536.
[and:]
—. De re horte[n]si libellus, vulgaria herbarum, florum, ac fruticum, qui in hortis co[n]seri solent nomina Latinis vocibus efferre docens ex probatis authoribus. In puerorum gratiam atq[ue] utilitatem. Recognitus et auctus. Paris, Robert Estienne, 1536.
[and:]
—. Seminariu[m] sive plantarium earum arborum, quae post hortos conseri solent: quarum nomina, fructus, ite[m] etiam conserendi vocabula apud authores bene recepta hoc libello declarantur. In pueroru[m] gratiam atque utilitatem … Paris, Robert Estienne, 1536.
[and:]
TELESIO, Antonio. Anthonii Thylesii Cosentini libellus de coloribus, ubi multa leguntur praeter aliorum opinionem. Paris, Christian Wechel, 1529.
Five works in one vol., pp. 68, [10 (index)], [2 (blank)]; 56, [8 (index)]; 96, [16 (index)]; 107, [18 (index)], [3 (blank)]; ff. [26]; woodcut devices to titles of first four works, title to final work within woodcut border, woodcut device to final page, woodcut initials; paper flaw at head of F3 of fourth work; very good clean copies in nineteenth-century calf, parts of original blind-tooled covers laid down, spine lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers; some wear to upper joint and extremities; early inscriptions to first title ‘Ex lib. M.B.M. Blesens’ and ‘Ex libris G. Fay’ and nineteenth-century circular red ink stamp ‘Ch. Domergue Beaucaire’, inscription at head of p. 21 ‘Ex libris B.M. de Burgo medio Blesensis’, bookplate of Michel Cail.
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De re vestiaria libellus, ex Bayfio excerptus: addita vulgaris linguae interpretatione, in adulesce[n]tuloru[m] gratiam atq[ue] utilitatem. Secunda editio.
A wonderful sammelband of four children’s books compiled and published by the Estiennes, covering Roman dress and vases as well as plants and trees, bound with Antonio Telesio’s celebrated treatise on colours.
‘In 1535 Robert Estienne’s brother Charles, while employed as private tutor to Jean Antoine de Baif (the future poet, son of the humanist and diplomat Lazare de Baif), began to prepare a series of children’s books, the first of their kind … These were at first abridged adaptations for children, with French glossaries, of Lazare de Baif’s scholarly treatises on Roman antiquities’ (Schreiber 50). De re vestiaria, here in the second edition, was ‘the first title in the series, compiled from Baif’s original Basel edition of 1526, and deals with ancient Roman dress – from hats and bonnets to shoes and sandals, with a section on carpets and rugs, as well as one on colors of wools and clothes. The French equivalent of all terms is provided. The little book was a huge success … and Charles followed it with several other similar booklets … These may be regarded as the first children’s books, i.e. the first books produced specifically for the entertainment (unlike school-books) as well as the edification of a juvenile readership’ (ibid.).
De vasculis (first 1535) was compiled from Lazare de Baif’s Basel edition of 1531, and covers ‘ancient Roman vessels, containers, dishes, vases, and receptacles’ (Schreiber 51). De re hortensi (first 1535) ‘deals with the names and appearance of plants and trees, with French translations of all botanical terms’ and ‘is the first of Charles Estienne’s children’s books to be based on original information … drawn from Charles’s own great interest in botany’ (Schreiber 58). Seminarium sive plantarium is here in the first edition and explains the nomenclature and cultivation of fruit trees.
The final item is a work on colour theory by the Italian humanist Antonio Telesio (1482–1534), first published at Venice in 1528. Divided into thirteen chapters, it describes numerous colours with reference to classical writers including Aristotle, Cicero, Homer, Horace, Plato, Terence, and Virgil.
Provenance: formerly in the library of the Abbaye de Bourg-Moyen in Blois, France.
USTC 79703; 79704; 79705; 79706; 146064. Cf. Schreiber, The Estiennes 50, 51, 58, 61.
