Les Nouveaux Principes De L’art d’Ecrire, ou La vraie Méthode d’y exceller Sans Maitre. (20 ff.), Traité pour rendre flexibles les Articulations des doigts & du bras (2 ff.), Cahier d’Ecriture. (18 ff.)
Remiremont, 1789-1792.
3 parts in one large folio volume (500 x 350 mm), 37 ff. unbound, very damaged boards; some tears with damage to the text, some plates may have been removed from the volume (Period binding).
Superb work calligraphed in brown and red ink by a calligrapher named Diot, practicing in Remiremont in the Vosges.
The Vosges calligrapher was clearly inspired by the Nouveaux principes de l'art d'écrire (1731) by Sébastien Royllet or Roillet (1699-1767), from which he took the outline of the first part.
This handwritten treatise features a calligraphic title, a notice to the reader similar to Royllet's but adapted, and the same 10 chapters as the Nouveaux principes de l'art d'écrire.
The variants in the text and the adapted and reduced passages show that this is no mere copy, but the work of a true master-writer.
In this handwritten treatise, Diot offers many more examples of majeures, mineures françaises and penchés de pied en tête than in Royllet's printed treatise. Diot, for example, gives up to 5 different spellings for each French major, compared with just one in Royllet.
Note an example of an anthropomorphic letter, composed of one or two contorted figures, with this tasty caption testifying to the revolutionary period in which the work was executed:
"Tout est frivole dans le siècle où nous sommes, que de contorsions prises parmi les hommes."
Another sign of modernity is the timid presence of the K in two spellings.
The work is followed by two other parts, comprising a suite of 2 and 15 superb plates of calligraphic compositions, sometimes decorated with animals or figures, sometimes in red ink, with a few touches of blue ink. 3 other plates by Diot, including one signed, on thinner paper, complete this set.
3 800€
In stock
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