| Description: |
De L’Imprimerie de la République, Paris. [1804]. First Edition, small 4to, half-title, 104pp., with several old faint stamps from a institutional library now dispersed, some dust soiling and light staining in the margins, but a very good sound copy, recent cloth-backed marbled boards, gilt leather label on spine, t.e. with early gilding, others uncut. First Edition of this interesting and important side note in the history of the evolution of Irish type. Marcel employed two Irish types in the printing of this work. The first, utilised for the notes, was cast in Rome ca. 1675, and used for the printing of religious texts by Irish priests resident there from 1676-1707. Napoleon brought the type back from Rome and turned it over to the ‘Imprimerie Nationale’, of which Marcel was Director. The Irish text is printed in a different type, which Lynam believes was cast before 1800, for the ‘Soc. de Propagand. Filde’, but was never utilised until its appearance here. |
