Lot 42: BOZE, Claude Gros de (1680-1753) -- [Jean BOUDOT II (1685-1754).] Catalogue des livres du

BOZE, Claude Gros de (1680-1753) -- [Jean BOUDOT II (1685-1754).] Catalogue des livres du cabinet de M. de Boze. [Paris: Imprimerie Royale for the collector], 1745.

2 o (293 x 180 mm). Engraved frontispiece (angel displaying De Boze's wreathed initials on a large scroll, with a quotation from Martial) and allegorical headpiece by Preisler after Bouchardon. Engraved portrait of the collector by Charles Simonneau after André Bouys mounted on flyleaf facing the frontspiece.

Fine contemporary French gold-tooled dark-blue morocco, triple fillet on sides, double fillets and small floral tools in compartments of spine, turn-ins roll-tooled with floral ornament, yellow silk liners, gilt-edges. Folding cloth case. Provenance: Comte de Lignerolles (his Paris sale, part III, 1894, lot 3257: "Superbe exemplaire, l'un des 12 tirés de format pet. in-fol.") -- Maurice Escoffier (bookplate, no. 155 in his private-library catalogue) -- Jacquet Millot (bookplate).

THE NOTORIOUSLY RARE LIBRARY CATALOGUE of the De Boze collection, privately published in an edition limited to a few dozen copies (the number is variously given as 25, 36 and 90) for distribution to friends of the collector. De Boze was a distinguished numismatist, who as a young man had worked for the King on Médailles du règne de Louis le Grand (1702). He was secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions for thirty-seven years, published the first fifteen volumes of the Academy's Memoires, collaborated on its official history, and was elected to Fénélon's seat at the Académie française in 1715. He was one of the most important book collectors under Louis XV, owning copies of the Gutenberg Bible (acquired after 1745), both Mainz Psalters, blockbooks, a long series of editiones principes, and several Grolier bindings. Although Boudot wrote this private catalogue, he was not entrusted with the sale of the collection after De Boze died, the task going to Gabriel Martin (see next lot). Taylor p. 233; BBB Harvard 2.