68 - LA RUE, Jean-Baptiste de. [COMPAGNONS DU DEVOIR].

LA RUE, Jean-Baptiste de. [COMPAGNONS DU DEVOIR]. Treatise on Stone Cutting, or by a Method Paris: Imprimerie Royale, 1728. Folio, 185 pp. Contemporary havana calfskin, ribbed spine (binding worn with losses to the caps and corners; some loose leaves; rare faint waterstains and a few foxing spots; a tear without loss to a fold-out plate; some tarnished edges). An exceptional working copy owned by a 19th-century member of the “Compagnons du Devoir” of the original edition of La Rüe. Featuring his large handwritten bookplate, dated 1860 at the front of the book: “This book belongs to Madelaine Auguste Alexandre / Stone Cutter’s Apprentice—Year 1860,” written in capital letters with a pen in the style of engraved letters. Superimposed on this is a bookplate by the same person, drawn in graphite and dated 1835. Bookplate marks by the same person, bearing his full name as a journeyman, though the nickname portion has been scratched out: “Madelaine (...) de Carcagny.” He was, in fact, originally from Normandy, and his family can be found in the regional archives for Carcagny, now in Calvados. An illustrated copy featuring 69 black copperplate engravings, 38 of which repeat the print on both the front and back, by Antoine Coquart. The work consists of five parts devoted respectively to doors and lintels, main vaults, trompes, descents, and lintels, and finally to staircases. These are followed in the appendix by a *Short Treatise on Stereotomy Applied to the Cutting of Stone*. The volume contains two sketches of “trompes” on tracing paper by the journeyman, with annotations and signed “Madelaine.” It features an allegorical frontispiece title page by Bertin, engraved by Thomassin, dated 1738, and a large vignette bearing the coat of arms at the title. Antique bookplates redacted with ink. Provenance: from the library of Pierre Séjourné. STEREOTOMY. BUILDERS. Brunet, III, 852. Not currently listed in the Musée du Compagnonnage database.