Villette. - Works of the Marquis de Villette. London [Monta - Lot 445

Villette. - Works of the Marquis de Villette. London [Montargis, Claude Lequatre], n.p., 1786. In-16, bound in brown half-maroquin with corner pieces, accented with a gold fillet (Capé binding) - [4 ff.], 156 pp. and a series of 20 sheets of plant-based paper samples: nettle paper, hop paper, moss paper, reed paper, conferva paper (3 species), couch grass root paper, charcoal wood paper, hazel wood paper, elm bark paper, linden bark, willow bark, Marsaut bark, poplar bark, oak bark, burdock, burdock and donkey’s-foot, and thistle leaves. A curious book, produced by Pierre-Alexandre Léorier-Delisle, director of the Royal Paper Mill of Langlée, near Montargis, on vegetable paper—specifically, linden bark paper. Described by Frédéric Barbier as “the first book printed entirely on vegetable-based paper.” A second collected edition of the works of the scandalous Marquis de Villette, the volume contains numerous poems, as well as beautiful letters to Voltaire, of whom Villette was a fervent admirer. Bibliography: F. Barbier, “Technical Innovations,” History of French Publishing, II, 545Villette