MEMOIRES DE LITTERATURE [with six engraved plates and four vignettes of printing presses] Par M. De S**

La Haye: Henri du Sauzet. Very Good-. 1715-1717. First Edition. Leather. Engravings; 1000+ pages; Two volume set comprising four parts with separate titlepages. Title pages printed in red and black. Bound in contemporary full calf, five raised bands at spines; title and volume number labels missing, decorative stamping to compartments, but most gilt rubbed/flaked away; leather rubbed at extremeties and worn away at hinges and spine ends. (xviii), 207, (i), (iv), 211-464, (xii); (x), 240; (vi), 299, (v) pp. Illustrated with two frontispieces by Frans van Bleyswyck (duplicates - one in each volume), four title page vignettes (of printing presses), and four engraved portraits. Portraits include Guillaume Postel [(1510-1581), a French linguist, astronomer, Cabbalist]; Laurentio Costero, Harlemensi [Laurens Koster of Harlem, long suggested as having been an inventor of printing with moveable type]; Poggius Bracciolinus [Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380-1459), an Italian scholar, book hunter and an early humanist]; Tanaquillis Faber Cadomensis [Tanneguy Le Fèvre 1615-1672), a French classical scholar]. The author Albert-Henri de Sallengre (The Hague, 1694 -1723) was a Dutch man of letters from a family of French Protestant refugees. He was also a lawyer, an advisor to the Prince of Orange and financial commissioner. It is fitting that the handsome title pages of the four pages of this two-volume work all have engraved central vignettes depicting a printing press at work, as the most interesting content here relates to printing. Section X of the second part of the first volume is a consideration of the question of whether moveable type printing was first invented in Haarlem or in Mainz. The Dutch candidate was Laurens Janszoon Coster [ca. 1370-1440]. The text here includes a brief discussion of three works purported to have been printed by Coster, including the intriguing 'Speculum Humanae Salvationis' -- a mediaeval text known to exist in both block book and type-printed editions during the fifteenth century. The full page engraving depicts Laurens Coster standing full-length; in keeping with tradition, he is shown holding a letter "A" in his left hand. (This image is derived from the woodcut Coster portrait published in 1630 by the Haarlem printer Adriaan Rooman. This image is similar to, but not identical to the statues of Coster in Haarlem, one in the Grote Markt , the other by the great Romeyn de Hooghe). In addition to the articles about Poggio Bracciolini the book hunter, and Guillaume Postel, there are also articles about the famous case of the imposter Martin Guerre, and a bibliographical list of all the much admired small books in the series of 'Republics' printed by the Elzevier press (along with details of a few imitations and related books). .