Details
DESNOS, LOUIS CHARLES. Etrennes utiles et ncssaires aux commercans et voyageurs ou Indicateur fidle enseignant toutes les routes royales et particulires de la France. Paris: chez Desnos, 1771. Engraved throughout: frontispiece showing Mercury and a putti bearing the royal emblems above a country scene with a walled town in the distance, double-page map of France, double-page plan of Paris, and 176 pages including 156 strip road maps, printed on rectos and versos, most towns and villages hand-colored in red (the last 3 pages left blank). 24mo, early 19th century tree calf gilt. FIRST EDITION of this small format version of Desnos's Indicateur fidle, originally published in quarto format. [With:] Another copy, calf, g.e., soiled, apparently an earlier issue, containing only 150 maps (uncolored) and ending at page 160; and 7 volumes from later editions, for the years: 1773 , 2 copies, contemporary calf, g.e., one vol. quite worn, 156 strip maps, uncolored; 1775, morocco, worn, some staining, 156 strip maps, colored; 1780, morocco, 156 strip maps, colored (in red, yellow, and green), a separately titled letterpress index bound in at end; 1785, 2 copies, morocco, 156 strip maps, fully colored, letterpress index; and [S.d., 1777?], calf, 156 colored maps, letterpress index. Together 9 vols., 24mo, all bindings contemporary except as noted, all editions with the frontispiece and double-page maps of France and Paris. A FINE SERIES OF DESNOS'S RARE MINIATURE ROAD BOOKS, of which Fordham (Les Routes de France, Paris 1929) cites editions for 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1777, and 1780. (9)