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Traité de l’imprimerie.

Paris: chez Bertrand-Quinquet, imprimeur rue Germain-Lauxerrois, no. 53. An VII, 1798/9.

Collation: 4to: [pi]⁴ 1–36⁴, 148 leaves, pp. [8] 288. Leaf 6/1 or 6/2 may be a cancel. Printed on two different paper stocks, watermarked L. Rousorias and H. Dupey[?], both with chain lines spaced at 127mm.
Plates: 10 engraved plates: numbered Planche 1–10, the last signed ‘Dessiné et Gravé par N. Ransonnette’ (bound after p. 280).
Condition: 255 x 197 x 15mm. Light waterstains in first few gatherings.
Binding: Contemporary paste-paper boards. Spine ends, joints and corners worn.
Provenance: Contemporary signature ‘Charles Louis Roetzer de Berne’ on free endleaf.
References: Bigmore and Wyman I, p. 52 and II, p. 235; Barber p. 15; Gaskell, Barber and Warrilow F7; Quérard I, p. 313.
Price: £2,250

First edition, the author’s issue,  probably an ordinary paper copy. The author’s issue was printed on 4 different kinds of paper: ‘Papier ordinaire’ in wrappers at 6 Fr.; ‘papier fin’ at 15 Fr.; ‘papier vélin’ at 25 Fr.; and two copies only on ‘papier vélin rose’ at 120 Fr., the last three bound in boards by Bradel (see Barber).  Another issue was sold to accompany the Neuchâtel counterfeit edition of the Déscription des arts et métiers and has the imprint ‘chez Calixte Volland, libraire, quai des Augustins, No. 25. An VI’ and has lettered rather than numbered signatures.

¶ This important printers’ manual deals with typographic design as well as the technology of printing. It is dedicated to Pierre Didot (1761–1853), as the ‘Premier imprimeur de l’Europe,’ a direct challenge to Bodoni, and is printed in one of Firmin Didot’s type faces. Composition, presswork, the organization of the shop and inkmaking are described and the plates show a composing frame, case lays, imposition schemes, correction marks and a common press. Janssen discusses the unique place Bertrand-Quinquet’s work holds among printer’s manuals for its attention to three concepts: the idea that printing had reached the highest degree of perfection; the importance of typography; and the importance of textual purity. Bertrand-Quinquet was himself a printer, first in Compiègne then in Paris.

Literature: Grässe II, p. 367; Frans Janssen, ‘Bertrand-Quinquet, propagandiste de Didot (1799)’, Quaerendo, 29 (1999) 3–40, reprinted in Janssen, Technique and Design in the History of Printing (‘t Goy-Houten, 2004, pp. 194–228).