[LEROY, Marice]; CAZOTTE, Jacques.
Le Diable Amoureux. Gravures sur cuivre originales de Maurice Leroy. Ornements Typographiques gravés sur bois de Dan Sigros.
Paris: Éditions Janick, 1946.

Quarto (28.2 x 23.3 cm). No.403 of 475 copies printed on wove vélin de Marais paper, of a total limitation of 618 numbered copies. Quarter crimson morocco binding with marbled boards, by Jordi (his stamped ticket, dated 1964). Original wraps bound in. Spine gilt in six compartments. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Fine copy overall.

Illustrated with 15 full-page hors-texte copper engravings by Maurice Leroy and 19 sets of wood engravings by Dan Sigros (headpiece, opening initial in two colors and tailpiece for each chapter, imaginatively and comprehensively depicting the Devil). In this exceptional copy, one of very few thus, all of Leroy's engravings are fully colored by hand. The binding is an early commission of the noted Spanish binder Jordi.

Chef-d'ouevre of Illuminist Jacques Cazotte (1719-92), Le diable amoureux (1772) is a "Spanish novella," cloaking an ironic commentary on social and psychological mores, in which a young nobleman who dares the Devil is treated to the ride of his life. This seminal work for modern fantastic prose in the supernaturalist tradition is an important precursor of the French Romantics and Symbolists.

Provenance: Luis de Caralt (his bookplate on preliminary leaf), the Barcelona publisher who was Spain's leading collector of modern illustrated books.

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Price: $1,500
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