Typography and Printing

4 Calligraphy Manual
Duval, Nicolas. Nouvelles Ecritures de Finance & italienne batarde, en usage avec
un traité pour apprendre l‘Orthographe par Nicolas Duval secrétaire ordinaire de
la chambre du Roy & M. Escrivain juré à Paris. Paris, Veuve Jean Henault & François
Henault, 1674. Oblong small folio (196 x 310 mm), ll. [2] (engraved title and dedication),
pp. 4, 15, [1], 8 (letterpress text), ll. 20 (engraved text); engraved title with
elaborate border; margins of plates with some light dampstaining and fraying, the
lower blank forecorner of title worn or torn with slight loss (not touching text) lately
expertly repaired; limp vellum wrappers re-used from an earlier manuscript on vellum;
spine expertly repaired. E 5400.00
See David P. Becker, The Practice of Letters, 1997, 88 and 89 (editions
of c. 1670 and after 1686). Nicolas Duval was an influential figure in the
development of French calligraphy and worked at the heart of the French
government as Secretaire Ordinaire de la Chambre du Roy. He issued a
number of fine engraved manuals with differing sequences of plates and
letterpress explanations and this example is apparently otherwise unrecorded.
Surviving examples of these manuals are rare, and it is clear that
Duval altered titles and contents to suit circumstances (perhaps on taking
on a new student) so that each title may have been unique or issued in
only very small numbers.
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