AMATEUR BINDING BY A MASTER CALLIGRAPHER
[LE GUERCHOIS, Madeleine d’Aguesseau, Madame.]
Avis d’une mere a son fils.
Paris, Desaint & Saillant, 1743.
12mo in 8s and 4s, pp. [viii], 130, [4]; a very good copy, uncut in near-contemporary domestic vellum (reused from an earlier binding, seemingly over pre-existing boards) decorated in ink by François Nicolas Bédigis, sewn two-on on 2 cords, with secondary sewing through every second quire to attach a canvas spine lining; manuscript booklabel ‘Ex Libris Bédigis’ to front pastedown.
A popular work of matrimonial advice, in a simple vellum binding richly decorated by the master calligrapher Francois Nicolas Bédigis (1738–1814).
Bédigis, a professor at the Académie royale d’écriture, published several calligraphy books, notably L’art d’ecrire (1768), Les agréments de l’écriture moderne (1770), and Ars artium (1783). He is known to have decorated the books in his library with distinctive geometric pen-and-ink designs, and – although his designs are found also on professional plain vellum bindings – the highly unusual and slightly clumsy structure here suggests that Bédigis most likely bound (or at least re-covered) books when necessary, to produce a blank surface on which to work.
