P. C. F. Menestrier - La nouvelle méthode raisonnée du blason pour l'apprendre d'une manière aisée - 1698

MENESTRIER (Claude-François). The New Reasoned Method of Blazon, to learn it in an easy way, reduced into lessons by questions and answers. Bordeaux, by the Society, 1698. With permission.

In-12, 16.5 cm x 10 cm, 324 pp. Frontispiece engraved, title in red and black adorned with a wood-engraved bouquet, 29 engraved coats of arms and one illustrated plate. Brown mottled calf of the period, spine with raised bands ornamented with gilded foliate panels, red morocco title label, decorated edges. Presented under Melinex jacket, in a protective case.

The blazon manual of the Jesuit from Lyon, Claude-François Menestrier (1631-1705), the most practical and widespread of his time: by questions and answers, it teaches enamels, the pieces, the figures and the method of blazoning, with examples to support, then the exterior ornaments, crowns and marks of dignity. The plates present several hundred coats of arms of French and European families, each captioned. Published in Lyon in 1696, the work was reprinted throughout the eighteenth century; this Bordeaux edition is one of the very first.

The frontispiece shows the royal arms beneath a banner, with the inscription “Le Roy chanoine d'honneur de l'Église de Lyon.”

Provenance: old inscription erased on the title, dated 1752.

Very complete with the frontispiece and the 30 plates.

Condition: very good. Solid binding. Paper browned in places, some foxing and small scattered stains but otherwise the interior is very pleasant and fresh.