[ANTIQUARIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY / WOMAN PRINTER]. Catalogue des livres imprimes et manuscrits, composant la bibliotheque de feu m. L.M.J. Duriez (de Lille). Sale dates: 22 janvier 1828 et seq

Paris: [Mme Huzard for] J.-S. Merlin, 1828. First Edition. Very good. 8vo. x, 530 pp., 1 f. (advertisement), 5245 lots described. Bound by Kohler in contemporary smooth quarter calf, marbled boards (front cover bumped at fore-edge, flat spine divided by gilt fillets into six compartments, title and date lettered direct, marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Unidentified monogram on first blank leaf "F.J." (not in Lugt). PRICED COPY of the sale catalogue of the library belonging to the late Louis-Marie-Joseph Duriez (1753-1825), comprising at least 46 illuminated Books of Hours, together with an illuminated 15th-century "Mirroir de l'humaine salvation" (2860 FF), early French vernacular prose, a 1497 Bible once in the possession of Mary Stuart, some finely bound Aldines. Lot 5 is a mid-13th century illuminated English (Oxford?) Bible; lot 2230 is an illuminated La Pelerinage de Vie Humaine ca. 1470. The entries record noteworthy binders' names such as Bozérian, Derome, and their contemporaries, as well as important provenance, illumination, and copies on vellum. The Prince d'Essling bought heavily at this sale.

From p. [vii]: "To announce the catalogue of the library of a Member of the Society of French Bibliophiles is to grant the public the right to expect a collection that is remarkable -- whether for the beauty of its editions and the luxury of its bindings, or for that assemblage -- always so difficult to form -- of those bibliographical curiosities whose vein seems to grow ever more depleted with each passing day" (translation ours).

PRINTED BY MADAME HUZARD (born 1766 as Marie-Rosalie Vallat-la-Chapelle) who formed one third of a dynasty of women printers on the rue de l'Éperon, Paris. She was the daughter of Marie-Catherine and Pierre Vallat-la-Chappelle. In 1792 she married Jean-Baptiste Huzard who, interestingly, was not printer-publisher but a professor of veterinary studies and inspector general. They combined their talents to become one of the foremost publishers of works on veterinary medicine and agriculture. "Her choice to use both her husband's and her mother's name demonstrates how she drew on both sets of connections to build a strong business, and hints at her long involvement in the trade from before her marriage" (Scott Ellwood, "One Dynasty, Three Names," blog on the Grolier Club wordpress site, 2019). Marie-Rosalie died in 1842, a wealthy woman, well respected by her peers.

North, Grolier Club 597. Lugt, Repertoire 11616.