First description of Gutenberg’s Bible; Bure’s Bibliographie instructive, Paris, 1763 in rich C18th mottled calf.

BURE, Guillaume François de. Bibliographie instructive: on traité de la connoissance des livres rare et singuliers. Paris: Didot for De Bure le Jeun e, 1763-1769, and [vol. 10] Demonville for Goguée & Née de la Rochelle, 1782. [with] Lettre à M.*** servant de réponse à une critique de la Bibliographie instructive. [Paris: 1763] [with] Appel aux savans et aux gens de lettres, au sujet de la Bibliographie instructive.

[Paris]: 1763

8vo (192 x 122 mm)
Description
10 volumes. Roman and italic type, 30 lines plus headline. Half-titles to volumes III, V and VIII, volumes VIII and IX with manuscript prices in margins. (Lacking most blanks, some worming to lower margin of volume IX.)
Binding
Bound in contemporary French mottled calf, spine with raised bands, gilded ornaments and red and black morocco labels, marbled endpapers. Minor wear, in very good condition.

First Edition of all ten volumes of the antiquarian bookseller Guillaume François de Bure’s expansive bibliography of rare books. It is a landmark work in bibliographical scholarship and antiquarian book collecting, notably being the first publication to categorise and describe the Gutenberg Bible (“Bible Mazarine”).

De Bure’s methodical approach was organized according to five main categories used by the French bibliographer and bookseller Pros per Marchand for the Bigot sale, the first book auction in France for which a
catalogue was printed: theology, jurisprudence, sciences and arts (initially called philosophy), belles-lettres, and history. Volumes VIII and IX, entitled Supplement à la Bibliographie Instructive, ou Catalogue des Livres du Cabinet de feu M. Louis Jean Gaignat, are the auction catalogue of Gaignat (1697-1768), with manuscript prices in brown ink in the margins.

Provenance
1. Anthony Robert Alwyn Hobson (1921-2014), a noted bibliophile,
auctioneer and collector (ex libris label to front pastedown).