["CIVILITE" TYPE, EDUCATION AND ETIQUETTE]. La civilite qui se pratique en France parmi les honnetes gens, pour l'education de la jeunesse. Avec une methode facile pour apprendre a bien lire, prononcer les mots & les ecrire. Les quatrains du sage Mr de Pybrac, & l'arithmetique en sa perfection Pibrac, Guy du Faur (1529-1584) Book Arts,Boston Book Fair 2025,Printing and Private Press

Small octavo (165 x 105 mm). 70, [2], 8 pp. Stitched in contemporary printed waste-paper wrappers (worn, torn along spine and back wrapper with loss). TYPOGRAPHY IN THE SERVICE OF EDUCATION, UTILIZING THE FABULOUS "CIVILITE" TYPE WHICH HAD BEEN CREATED BY ROBERT GRANJON IN 1557 AND WAS STILL EMPLOYED ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY FOR THIS PURPOSE WELL INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. EVEN AFTER 285 YEARS, OUR COPY IS STILL IN THE PRINTER'S "TEMPORARY" WASTE-PAPER WRAPPERS. Students today will find it a rewarding challenge to read the text in this book, owing the to presence of large and unfamiliar swash letters, ligatures, and multiple variants of a single letter. Nonetheless, civilite type must be studied by students of the book arts as it was the fourth major typeface to be different from -- and stand alongside -- roman, italic, and Gothic. Indeed, Granjon envisioned his civilite as a kind of "national" typeface for the use of French printers. Offered here is a classic French guide to etiquette and the education of youth preserved in original unsophisticated condition. Civilite type is used to explain how young people can become "civil" and "honest." There are "easy" methods for learning to read, pronounce words, write and spell. To this is added "The Quatrains of the wise Mr. de Pybrac & Arithmetic in its perfection." There are sections on maintaining cleanliness of the different parts of the body, proper attitudes, getting up, going to bed, dressing, eating, "good" conversation in company, table etiquette, and much more. This copy is well used and bears a number of curious annotations, including a much later note inside the front wrapper concerning Barnaba Chiaramonti (b. Cesena 1742 - d. Rome 1823) who was elected pope in 1800 and served as Pius VII until his death. It is unclear to us why such a note would be inscribed herein, particularly as this copy would have been at least 60 years old. A very rare edition of this manual of civility, the earliest Blois printing we have found, succeeded by editions of 1751 and 1772 by Philibert-Joseph Masson (1695-1775). Our printer seems to have specialized in educational works such as this one, being responsible for the "Instruction sur les lettres de change, et sur les billets negociables" and "Instruction des Negocians: Ouvrage utile aux juges et consuls." After his death he was succeeded by his son Jean-Philibert-Joseph, to whom the 1790 edition of "La Civilite" must be attributed. This edition is not located by CCFr, Worldcat or KVK.