Lot 20: GRILLOT, JEAN

Lyon affligé de contagion. Lyon: François de la Bottiere, 1629 8vo (6 5/8 x 4 1/8 in.; 168 x 105 mm). Woodcut printer's device on title (in mirror image), woodcut head-pieces and decorative initials, borders and heading ruled in red; small dampstain in lower outer corner of first few leaves. Modern vellum, gold ruled, gold-stamped title label on spine, edges gilt.

Krivatsy 5000

J[ules] Renard (engraved bookplate)

First edition, published simultaneously with the Latin edition, of this vivid eyewitness account of the plague at Lyon in 1628-1629 written by a Jesuit Jean Grillot (d. 1647).The author attended those stricken but was fortunate to avoid infection. This copy is extra-illustrated with a frontispiece depicting [in trans.] " the costume of the doctors and other people visiting those stricken with plague" which consisted of a leather cloak, a mask with eye slots made of crystal, and a long nose piece filled with perfume. This costume was designed by Charles de Lorme, physician of Louis XIII, but the illustration is first attested in a Traité de la Peste of 1721 (a title whose shadow can barely be made out in the image).