[ANTIQUARIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY / MEDICAL BOOKS]. Catalogue des livres de fonds qui se trouvent chez J.B. Bailliere, libraire

Paris: J.B. Bailliere, 1824. First Edition. Very good. 8vo. 14 pp. (final page soiled). Recent sympathetic drab wrappers. Unique (?) and early catalogue of medical books belonging to the firm of J.-B. Bailliere (1797-1885) who was to become one of the most important publishers of medical and scientific books in the world.

Our Bailliere stock catalogue predates by 40 years any comparable example held by the Grolier Club, and by 12 years any Bailliere auction catalogue.

The present catalogue is one of Bailliere's early catalogues, issued when the shop was located at 14, rue de l'Ecole de Medecine in Paris. The catalogue lists a small portion of his stock, principally from the years 1820-1824, but with some earlier imprints (e.g. 1808). Naturally Balliere's first publication, the "Medecine legale" by Lecieux and Renard (Paris, 1819), figures prominently herein. Bailliere's expansion as a publisher ran parallel to that of the field of French medicine in general, leading the firm to eminence, with subsidiary companies in London and in Madrid. Over the decades the firm of J.B. Bailliere has published more than 4,000 works in medicine and science.

§ Literature: J. Jacques Dubarry, "Le premier siecle d'une des doyennes des maisons d'edition medicales et scientifiques: J.-B. Bailliere, fondee en 1818" (Paris, 1986).

¶ Cataloguer's note: No other copy dated "Aout 1824" can be located. There is a later (1825) Bailliere catalogue at Bibl. Sainte-Genevieve which contains 16 pages.