Le Théâtre. Les Tragédies et Comédies.

[Amsterdam], Suivant la Copie imprimée à Paris, [Abraham Wolfgang], 1664 and 1665-1668.
10 vols. (75 x 134 mm). 1 portrait, 9 frontispieces and 61 figures. Red morocco, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt coffers, gilt title, volume numbering and dates, oval medallion in the center of the covers encircled by small gilt irons and tracery framed by a double set of triple gilt fillets, blue morocco linings, gilt roulette and fillets framing a wide gilt lace, corner fleurons, double combed endpapers, gilt edges on marbling (binding signed by Pierre-Marcellin Lortic).

The complete theatre of Pierre and Thomas Corneille: from L’Illusion comique to Rodogune, including Le Cid, Cinna and Polyeucte.

A choice copy, with the correct dates, with no exceptions (from 1662 to 1678) and impeccable pedigrees: Pierre-Marcellin Lortic, Henri Bordes and Jules Lemaître. This edition is precisely described by Picot in his Bibliographie Cornélienne, under no. 381. It is famous and contains admirable engravings illustrating the entire theatre of two brothers.
In addition to Pierre’s first five volumes, the publisher continued, until 1678, with the Tragédies et Comédies of his brother, Thomas.

We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.

One of the finest known copies of this “charming edition produced in Amsterdam by Abraham Wolfgang, and rightly sought after, if not for the text itself, then at least for the beauty of the printing and the paper and the elegance of the figures. This edition has the advantage of providing not a selection, but the complete suite of plays by Corneille. In recent years, says Mr. Brunet, it has become a very major item for French bibliophiles, and it is very difficult to find complete copies of it.” (Picot, 381). Willems confirms this: ”This collection is difficult to assemble. Copies that leave nothing to be desired in terms of the dates of the plays and the size of the margins are very expensive.”

This is the case of this copy, in exceptional condition and with very wide margins (134 mm). All the plays, figures, general titles, figures and frontispieces are indeed present, as well as a large part of the leaves that sometimes separate the plays. It is indeed complete with the printer’s notice to the reader and the portrait in volume 1, which are often missing.

The five volumes of Pierre Corneille’s plays all bear the mark of Abraham Wolfgang, signed “Quarendo” and depicting “the fox watching its prey” (cf. Willems, Ed. Hollandaises des annexes aux Elzeviers, 1727, pp. 465-466).

I. Part: engraved frontispiece depicting the bust of Corneille crowned by two Fames, with the title: Le Theatre de P. Corneille; portrait of Corneille, without engraver’s name; 5 ff. for a notice from the Printer to the Reader (notice signed A. W.) and the table of plays by Pierre and Thomas Corneille; -1 blank f. blank, 74 pp. for the Discours du Poëme dramatique and the Examens, and the eight plays (from Mélite to l’Illusion comique) follow. Each play, preceded by a figure and a title, has a distinct pagination.

II. Part: engraved frontispiece representing two Amours, one of which is displaying a veil on which one can read: Le Theatre de P. Corneille, and the other engraves a coat of arms on a stone; title, 92 pp. containing the Discours de la Tragédie and the Examens, and forwards the seven plays (from Cid to Suite du Menteur). Each play, preceded by a figure and a title, has a distinct pagination.

III. Part: engraved frontispiece, representing Truth standing on a ball surrounded by oriental kings; this figure is holding a scarf on which is written: Le Theatre de P. Corneille; 1 f. for the title; 68 pp. for the Discours des trois Unitez and the three Examens; 1 blank f., and forward to the seven (from Rodogune to OEdipe). Each play, preceded by a figure and a title, has a separate pagination.

IV. Part: 6 ff. prel. comprising the engraved frontispiece, the title and the Sertorius Warning; forwarded are the four plays: Sertorius (1664), the Golden Fleece (1662), Sophonisbe (1663), and Othon (1665). Each play has a figure, a title and a separate pagination.

[See Part], which brings together the plays published by Wolfgang from 1666 to 1676: Agesilas (1666), Attila (1667), Tite et Bérénice (1671), Pulchérie (1673) and Surena (1676). Each play has a figure, a title and a separate pagination.

These five volumes are supplemented by the five of his brother, Thomas Corneille:

I. Part: 2 ff. for the engraved frontispiece and the title; forwarded by Les Engagements du hazard (1662); Le Feint Astrologue (1663); Bertran de Cigarral (1663); L’Amour à la mode (1663); Le Berger extravagant (1663); Le Charme de la Voix (1662). Each play has a figure, a title and a separate pagination.

II. Part: 2 ff. for the engraved frontispiece and the title; forwarded Le Geolier de soy mesme (1662); Les Illustres Ennemis (1662); Bérénice (1662); Timocrate (1662); La Mort de l’empereur Commode (1662); Darius (1662). Each play has a figure, a title and a separate pagination.

III. Part: 2 ff. for the engraved frontispiece and the title: Stilicon (1662), 1 fig., 4 ff. and 75 pp.; le Galand doublé (1662), 1 fig., 1 f. and 82 pp.; Camma (1662), 1 fig., 4 ff., 74 pp. and 1 blank f.; Maximian (1662), 1 fig., 4 ff., 74 pp. and 1 blank f. These four plays are the only ones mentioned on the back of the title page of the third part, but Wolfgang continued his edition as Th. Corneille published new plays. It is therefore appropriate to add Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (1666), and Perseus and Demetrius (1666) to this volume. These two plays are indeed present here and the titles were added in ink to the list in the past. Each play has a figure, a title and a separate pagination.

IV. Partie, 1676: 2 ff. for the engraved frontispiece and the title; forward Antiochus (1666); Laodice (1668); the Baron d’Albikrac (1670); the Countess d’Orgueil (1671);-Théodat (1673); The Death of Annibal (1673). Each play has a figure, a title and a separate pagination.

V. Partie, 1678: 2 ff. for the title and table; forwarded Ariane (1674); Circé (1676); La Mort d’Achille (1676); Don Cesar d’Avalos (1676); L’Inconnu (1678); Le Comte d’Essex (1678). There is no engraved frontispiece as a general title, but each piece has a separate figure, title and pagination.

Elected to seat 14 of the Académie française in 1647, Pierre Corneille was its dean when he died in October 1684. All the members of the Académie française were moved and offered the vacant seat to his grieving brother. He was unanimously elected to it on January 2, 1685, to the same seat 14; Thomas being unable to decently praise his brother whom he replaced, it was Racine who praised Pierre Corneille at the same time as he received Thomas. This is the only example in the history of the Académie française of such double speak by the same academician.

Voltaire said of his younger brother that, with the exception of Racine, “he was the only one of his time who was worthy of being the first below his brother. He was a man who would have a great reputation if he had not had a brother”. A good grammarian, Thomas Corneille worked on the Dictionnaire, produced a Dictionnaire des termes des arts et des sciences in two volumes, and a Dictionnaire universel géographique et historique in three volumes. He received Fontenelle at the Academy on May 5, 1691.

An exceptional collection of the two brothers’ works, in perfect condition. The copy was prepared with delicate and attentive care by Pierre-Marcellin Lortic, then sold to Henri Bordes.

Born in Saint-Gaudens on April 4, 1822, the Gascon Pierre-Marcellin Lortic, known as “le frondeur” (the rebel), arrived in Paris at the end of the 1830s and joined Pierre-Paul Gruel’s workshop as a worker: The young man stood out for his strong character and personal beliefs, which he asserted loudly and clearly. In 1844, when he was only 22 years old, he moved to 199 rue Saint-Honoré, where he remained until he moved to 1 rue de la Monnaie around 1860.

“Pierre-Marcellin Lortic’s bindings are distinguished by the polish of their morocco, their firmness, their lightness, the fineness of their cardboard and their very pinched nerves and the subtlety of their gilding, even if ‘Le Frondeur’ is not a gilder and he entrusts his work to the greatest specialists of the time, notably Wampflug and Maillard (…) Beyond his perfectionism and the undeniable mastery he would demonstrate, he would revolutionize the industrial art of bookbinding, both in terms of the relationship with the bibliophile and the commercial approach, developing a very personal conception of his art and only moderately appreciating the criticism and advice of bibliophiles. This perhaps led to his main commercial innovation: no longer waiting for the customer, he himself acquired works, bound them to his taste and offered them for sale directly in a workshop that also became, by the same token, a bookshop. The concept was revolutionary, at a time when luxury bookbinding was based on the order of an individual who then brought his work to the bookbinder, with his instructions. This earned Lortic the criticism of booksellers and enthusiasts, but demonstrated that the bookbinder had a very good knowledge of books and contemporary tastes, if not bibliography” (Hugues Ouvrard, in Portrait de Pierre-Marcellin Lortic, online).

His sure taste also led him towards exceptional works or bibliographic rarities, which he bound with great care and which he only sold to the great bibliophiles of his time who were his clients: Ambroise Firmin-Didot, who owned 504 bindings signed by him! -, the architect Joseph Lesoufaché, the Duke of Aumale, the architect Hippolyte Destailleurs, the Bordeaux shipowner Henri Bordes, the Duke of Parma, the Duke of Aumale, the Duke of Rivoli, Edmond de Goncourt, Auguste Poulet-Malassis, Charles Asselineau, Théodore de Banville and indeed Charles Baudelaire, who entrusted Lortic with the binding of eight copies of the first edition of Les Fleurs du mal.

From 1876, Lortic pasted a label in the left-hand corner of the front inside cover of his bindings, showing eight stacked books and indicating the many other prizes he won in London (in 1851, when he was only 29 years old), Paris (1855 and 1878), Vienna (1873) and Philadelphia (1876). In 1878, he became the first French bookbinder to be made a knight of the Legion of Honor and then modified his bookplate by adding this decoration. This Corneille bears this mark, which allows the binding to be dated to those years. He ended his professional activities in 1884; his sons followed up.

Our copy has this bookplate on every volume, as well as his iron stamp, located in the center of the first inside cover, which is his signature.

From the libraries of Pierre-Marcellin Lortic (bookplate, third version from 1878), Henri Bordes (bookplate and sale, 1911); Jules Lemaitre (bookplate and sale, 1917).

Picot, Bibliographie cornélienne, 381 (mentions a copy in red morocco lined with blue morocco from the Benzon collection, but this is probably a different copy); Willems, p. 466.