Epistolae et Evangelia Ad Usum Congregationis Sancti Mauri Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, Necnon Eorum Omnium Qui Missali Romano Utuntur.

Paris.: Typ. Lud. Annae Sevestre ... Cum Privilegio Regis., 1708.. Full contemporary red morocco à la dentelle surrounding central vignette of St. Peter (front board) or St. Paul (rear), borders with lyre and other evangelical tools, Saints Peter and Paul at alternating corners, banded spine with green morocco label with gilt title and elaborate decorative tooling in gilt in seven compartments, turn-ins with floral roll tool borders, board edges ruled in gilt, green and cream silk placemarkers, marbled endpapers, a.e.g., later burgundy calf-backed marbled board box with gilt titles to spine.. Folio. (380 x 250 mm).. Engraved frontispiece of the Crucifixion, printed title in red and black with engraved publisher's vignette and the text of 'Epistolae et Evangelia', printed text in Latin in different fonts throughout within double ruled border, large engraved head-piece of the Sermon on the Mount by Giffart to opening of the text, elaborate five-lined decorative initial to same, large engraving to pg. 215 verso and repeated engraved head-piece by Giffart for 'Proprium Sanctorum' and 'Commune Sanctorum', three leaves with printed text and music in red and black (i.e. pp. lvi - lx), two leaves with monthly index, final leaf with 'Privilège' dated 'le vingt-septième Séptembre mil sept cent six' recto, decorative woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces throughout; with terminal blank q4.. A splendid French edition of the 'Epistolae et Evangelia' in a beautiful contemporary binding of red morocco à la dentelle likely by Padeloup.This magnificent French edition of the ‘Epistolae et Evangelia’, readings from the Epistles and Gospels designated for specific Sundays and holy days throughout the liturgical year, was printed for the use of the Congregation of Saint Maur. This copy in a beautiful binding - likely by Antoine-Michel Padeloup le Jeune (see below) - was bound for Henry Arundell, 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour (1740 - 1808). Arundell, an avid collector in all fields and a leading English Catholic peer, commissioned a number of bindings in Paris for service books for use in his All Saints’ Chapel at New Wardour Castle in Wiltshire. The castle was designed by James Paine and includes additions by the Imperial Russian architect Giacomo Quarenghi; All Saints’ Chapel was reworked and enlarged by Sir John Soane in the 1780s. The binding with its religious tools (the Saints Peter and Paul, the crucifix tool used to surround the vignette saint at the centre of each board, the pelican of piety, the cloud-emerging hand with gospel, the lyre) is attributable to Padeloup on the basis of these tools and their use on a binding recorded by Robert Hoe (see plate 115 in ‘Catalogue of Books Printed in Foreign Languages, 1895) and their common use on a further binding (see ‘Les Plus Belles Reliures’ plate 34). Another binding, matching in décor, of the same title was offered in Breslauer’s Catalogue 110 (see no. 138) and also attributed to Padeloup. Michel Wittock’s collection (see lot 63 in Part I of his sale in 2004) featured a pair of bindings à la dentelle that also incorporated Arundell’s crowned ‘A’ vignette to the boards and while the tooling is similar to the present binding it is not identical. That pair of bindings was not attributed to a particular atelier although the catalogue note states: ‘This pair of dentelle bindings is of the very highest artistic quality, from an unidentified atelier that is in every way the equal of Derome’s’. It is very likely that these tools were commissioned specifically by Arundell for use in the creation of his bindings.