Autograph letters, signed, from Léopold Delisle to Count Ernest Armand and dated between March 26 and April 15, 1879. In the letters, Léopold Delisle observes that the pasteboard of the manuscripts sold from the Anne de Polignac collection consists of fragments of incunables; he describes how he has the bindings dismounted and the fragments replaced with new pasteboard. He specifically asks Count Ernest Armand permission to recover the printed fragments from the binding of a manuscript owned by the count and to replace them with new boards, which the latter gives. Also contains a newspaper article describing the purchase and discovery of incunables in the binding, and a manuscript description of the Medieval manuscript (Beinecke MS 1041) which these letters accompany
Description:
Léopold Delisle (1826-1919), French bibliophile and historian, head of the Bibliothèque imperiale (nationale)., Count Ernest Armand (1829-1898), French diplomat and politician, ambassador in The Hague, London, and Lisbon., In French., and Unbound. Covered in sheet of paper with manuscript note: Fragmente de livres imprimé à Angoulême au XVe siècle et ayant servi de couverture au manuscrit des "Harangues & oraisons des Anciens."
Subject (Topic):
Manuscripts, Medieval, Bookbinding, and Incunabula
Roger Payne, bookbinder, shown whole length leaning over to the left as he puts a book into a book press in his workroom; on the floor at his feet other books. He is a very thin, frail looking man with hollow cheeks. The room is otherwise empty and in disrepair with cracks in the walls. To the right is a fire blazing in a fireplace with cups and bowls on the mantel, a cup on the grate, and others on the sill of a casement window (left).
Description:
Title from caption below image. and Originally published by S. Harding.
