Charles Malo. L’Ami des Jeunes Demoiselles. Paris, Louis Janet, no date [1824]. In-18 (11,5 x 7,5 cm). Illustrated title, 143 pp, [1] p. of table, [4] pp. of calendar for the year 1825. 6 lithographed engravings under serpents out of text, and 4 engraved bands on the 4 pp. of the calendar. Romantic salmon-coloured boards decorated with a floral frame with a tambourine tied with two oboes, gilt edges, silk mitre on the upper back-cover, matching slipcase, titled in a floral design.
Delicate educational work for young girls, printed by J. Didot l’ainé, imprimeur du Roi, for the bookseller Louis Janet, published during the reign of Napoleon’s winner, Tsar Alexander I.
The copy comes from tsar Alexander’s Tsarskoe Selo Library, with an armorial stamp (in French).
Charles Malo (1790-1871) was a French literary scholar and founder of La France Littéraire. He was a member of many learned societies and an officer of the Société pour l’instruction élémentaire, whose Bulletin he edited. Among other works, he wrote La Guirlande de Flore, published in 1814.
I. Havelange, Un corpus inédit : les ouvrages écrits pour les demoiselles. Les livres pour les jeunes filles, 1750-1830, n° 138.
Very slight rubbing to the slipcase, some rare foxing to the text.
A precious copy, emblematic of Tsar Alexander I’s love of French culture as a Francophile and Francophone, and of the Russian imperial court’s attraction to French-style education.
2 000 €