Main entry:

Jeaurat, Edme-Sébastien, 1725-1803, author.

Title & Author:

Traité de perspective a l'usage des artistes : où l'on démontre géométriquement toutes les pratiques de cette science, & où l'on enseigne, selon la méthode de M. le Clerc, à mettre toutes sortes d'objets en perspective, leur réverbération dans l'eau, & leurs ombres, tant au soleil qu'au flambeau / par M. Edme-Sebastien Jeaurat, (ingénieur-géographe du roi).

Publication:

A Paris, quai des Augustins : chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, Libraire du Roi pour l'Artillerie & le Génie, au coin de la rue Gille-cœur, à l'Image Notre-Dame, M. DCC. L. [1750]

Description:

vj, [2], 240 pages, CXX [120] leaves of plates : illustrations, plans, diagrams (engravings) ; 27 cm

Notes:
Label on front paste-down: "No. '196 1 vol.'"
Printer's device on title-page. 120 full page engraved plates and 83 head- and tail-pieces (one full page). The head-pieces are the work of Pierre Soubeyran (1709-1775) and the tail-pieces are by Pierre-Edme Babel (1720-1775).
This record represents two distinct concealed editions, printed from entirely different settings of type (except for the title page); the 2nd ed. follows the 1st page for page, though not uniformly line for line. Notable variations, based on comparison of the Brown University copy of the 2nd ed. with the Sackler Library copy of the 1st ed. (reproduced in Google Books) include: 1st ed. has colophon, "De l'Imprimerie de J. Chardon, rue Galande, 1750", 2nd ed. has none; 1st includes an errata leaf omitted in the 2nd, in which the errata have been corrected (except that the misspelling "parallepipede" persists in some instances); recto headlines in 1st end "Part.", in 2nd "Partie." The placing of plates and tailpieces (which could potentially vary within an edition) is the same in the copies compared, except that Brown copy (2nd ed.) omits many of the smallest tailpieces as well as the large tailpiece on otherwise blank p. 173, and switches those found on p. 140 and 142. Many copies, including Brown University, lack the 10 leaves of plates at the end; it is not certain whether this may also occur in 1st ed., nor how common it is in the 2nd ed., which does include the "avertissement sur les planches suivantes" on p. 232. Brown also mistakenly places pl. 15 on p. 43, 14 on p. 47, 100 on p. 225, and 99 on p. 229. WorldCat holdings for this record, as of Sept. 2010, represent copies of 1st and 2nd eds., as well as copies with local descriptions insufficient to distinguish one from the other.
RPB
Printed text includes 100 unsigned engraved plates of diagrams and illustrations, numbered I-C (19 repeated). An additional 10 leaves of plates, concerning shadows, etc. in depiction of the 5 orders of architecture, are called for by an "avertissement sur les planches suivantes" on p. 232
With numerous engraved tailpieces by P.-E. Babel, one by Cochin fils, and two headpieces designed by Soubeyran, one of them engraved by J. Ingram; Cohen-De Ricci notes that these are old and worn.
Collation: 4to: a⁴ A-2G⁴ [$2 (+A3) signed]; 124 leaves, pp. [i-ij] iij-vj [vij-viij], [1] 2-66 [67] 68-232 [233] 234-240 [misprinting 96 as 69 (1st ed. only); misprinting 120 as 180 (2nd ed. only)].
Cohen-De Ricci, col. 517
Cicognara, 841
Bookplates: Paul Mellon and Baronne Barbe de Plessen (formerly Princess Gagarine). Label on front paste-down: "No. '196 1 vol.'"

Summary:

A beautifully produced book by Jeaurat, the celebrated French astronomer and geographer who wrote the work while still in his early twenties. Jeaurat's aim was to supplement theory with practical lessons for those who were not geometricians, and for those who were to elucidate the practice by delving deep into the theory. His instructive examples have a strong architectural bias and include a method for putting plans, elevations, and inclinations into perspective, for drawing steps, arches, solid crosses, doors, arcades, and moldings, with separate lessons, on the degradation of figures, the reflections on water and shadows. The final ten plates are devoted to the architectural orders, drawn in perspective, with shadows. The fine engraved plates are unsigned but were probably drawn by Jeaurat who came from a family of artists and studied drawing in his youth, gaining the Academie de Peinture medal in 1744. He was the son of the King's engraver and grandson of Sebastien Le Clerc. In 1753 he became professor of mathematics at the Ecole Militaire. Berlin, page 578; Fowler, page 129.

Subject:

Perspective Early works to 1800.
Provenance Laborde (François)
Perspective Ouvrages avant 1800.
Perspective

Form/genre:

engravings (prints)
Early works
Concealed editions (Printing)
Gravures.

Added entries:

Babel, Pierre-Edme, -1775? engraver.
Cochin, Charles Nicolas, 1715-1790, engraver.
Soubeyran, Pierre, 1709-1775, illustrator.
Ingram, John, 1721- engraver.
France Paris.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 15815
Call No.: W393
Status: Available