One of 50 copies on Whatman paper, including the frontispiece portrait in two states.
Portrait of Restif engraved by Eugène Loizelet after Louis Berthet and Louis Binet.
The first major descriptive bibliography devoted to Restif de La Bretonne. Paul Lacroix describes the first editions, reprints, unauthorized editions, translations and imitations of Restif’s works, along with the prints accompanying them. He adds an important account of Restif’s life and writings by his friend Michel de Cubières-Palmézeaux, enriched with numerous historical, critical and literary notes.
A bibliophile, scholar and curator of the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Paul Lacroix was one of the great architects of the rediscovery of marginal or forgotten writers of the Ancien Régime. His work contributed significantly to the renewed interest Restif enjoyed in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Although this bibliography has since been supplemented and corrected, it remains valuable for the wealth of information it gathers, its description of the copies then accessible, and the importance it gives to illustration, essential to Restif’s work.
Some foxing to the edges and a small dampstain affecting the last ten leaves.