Le Livre à la Mode. A verte-feuille.
[Paris: Duchesne], De L’Imprimérie du Printems [sic], au Perroquet, L’Année Nouvelle, [1759]. First edition, with text in green. The preface announces a second edition in red, stating that the color change was to accommodate different tastes (“il faut contenter tous les gouts”), but the preface to the second edition states that there was a problem with the green inks used in the first (“La couleur verte n’ayant duré que huit jours, ainsi que toutes les modes, je vous offre le plus beau des vermillions…”). The second edition has a different collation. The first is scarcer than the second according to RLIN and OCLC records. (A variant in green ink with a different collation yet also exists, though Cioranescu does not mention it.). Spine extremities lightly worn, but sound. A good, clean copy. Contemporary paste-paper boards. Twelvemo. XXII, 86 pp. Item #14143
This is a satirical work, poking fun at eighteenth-century manners and customs. Caraccioli (1721-1803) was born and wrote in Paris, though he studied in Mans and travelled or worked as a diplomat in Italy, Germany and Poland. He was a prolific writer on education, fashion, and morals. Book collectors know him best for the present work and its predecessor, Le Livre de quatre couleurs, which is in fact printed in four colors.
Cioranescu 15474. Graesse II, p. 44; Lipperheide Xa 69.
Price: $950.00