Les Plus Belles Églises du Monde. Notices Historiques et Archéologiques Sur les Temples les Plus Célèbres de la Chrétienté Tours: Ad Mame et Cie, 1857.
First edition.
Octavo. xvi, 504 pp. With 34 engraved plates, including a frontispiece. Text in French. Prize binding in full red polished calf with gilt and blind-stamped rules to covers; spine elaborately gilt in compartments, five raised bands, morocco spine label, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Some wear to extremities, some rubbing and scratches to covers; light foxing to first few leaves, heaviest on endpapers. Gift bookplate of Brighton College awarded to Margaret F. H. Borrer, with her personal bookplate to front flyleaf. Overall a very good copy of this seldom seen first edition.
First edition of this beautifully illustrated work on cathedrals around the world. Jean-Jacques Bourassé (1813-1872) was a French Roman Catholic priest, archaeologist, and historian. He is considered a pioneer in the field of Christian archaeology, and authored several books on the subject, including Archéologie Chrétienne (1841); Les Cathédrales de France (1843); and Recherches historiques et archéologiques sur les églises romaines en Touraine (1869).
Brighton College (est. 1845) was the first public school established in Sussex, UK. Known for following progressive principles, the College was the setting of the first school gymnasium, first purpose-built science laboratory, and the first school magazine. Notable alumni (known as Old Brightonians) include painter Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919), cricketer Bazid Khan (b.1981), and sculptor David Nash (b. 1945).
BMC, III, 748; Waldron, M.J., "Jean-Jacques Bourassé", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 716.
ID:
4282
$
150