Catalogue des vélins de la section des cartes.
In-4, paperback.
Rare autographed catalog of vellum from the Maps and Plans section of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Published in small numbers, it was compiled and written by Léon Vallée, assistant curator and head of the Maps and Plans section, with the collaboration of the young Charles du Bus (1885-1940).
Hand-crafted, with handwritten repeats where the printing was too light, it forms a supplement to the collection of vellum volumes in the Print Department.
This collection reached a total of 2227 items in the van Praet inventory in 1828, and rose to 2588 numbers in 1877 in Delisle's supplement, omitting however the vellums in the card section.
This catalog presents 292 numbers that had never been described before, "unique pieces of capital importance, constituting one of the most precious sources of geographical science"..
Léon Vallée (1850-1919) spent his entire career at the Bibliothèque nationale, first as an attaché in the Printed Documents department, then as principal librarian and curator in the Maps and Plans section, where he was appointed director in 1909. In 1912, he organized the first exhibition devoted entirely to the cartographic objects for which he was responsible..
It is to him that we owe the selection of precious documents grouped together under the term "reserve". Léon Vallée was also a renowned bibliographer, having authored a highly bibliographical Bibliographie des bibliographies (1883).
1 000€
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