SENAULT (Louis).

The rare financial and Italian bastard escritures newly in fashion. With an Abridgement containing very useful instructions for learning to write well and diligently. Paris, François de Poilly, s.d. [ca. 1670]. In-folio, hardback vellum (period binding). A very rare first edition, dedicated to the Grand Dauphin. The work, entirely composed and engraved on copperplate by Louis Senault, consists of 27 plates of rich calligraphy models and penmanship ending in the form of birds or cherubs. The Abrégé occupies the last 5 plates: it is a real manual of calligraphy, giving instructions on the good position of the body, the arm, the hand and the holding of the pen, the formation of the letters in financial writing and in Italian bastard, and finally the way to cut the pen. A folio page of calligraphy at the time is attached, loose. Significant tears and incisions on the boards, but internally clean, were it not for a marginal cut to one plate and a greyish stain on the verso of two plates.