24 - [ARCHITECTURE - ROUEN]. JOLIMONT, Théodore de. The Main Buildings of the City of Rouen in 1525, Drawn at That Time from the Plans in a Manuscript Book Titled *Le Livre des fontaines*.

[ARCHITECTURE - ROUEN]. JOLIMONT, Théodore de. The Main Buildings of the City of Rouen in 1525, Drawn at That Time from the Plans in a Manuscript Book Titled *Le Livre des fontaines*. First edition of this beautiful visual record of Rouen’s architecture in 1525, illustrated with 49 color lithographic plates reproducing the plans and drawings from Jacques Le Lieur’s famous manuscript, *Le Livre des Fontaines*. Rouen, Imprimerie de Péron / Librairie de Lebrument, 1845. Quarto, midnight blue half-shagreen, spine with raised bands accented by a gold ribbon, gold and blind-stamped floral decoration within a double gold frame between the bands, author and title in gold lettering, navy blue percaline covers with blind-stamped borders, mottled edges (contemporary binding). LVI and 94 pages, 49 lithographed and colored plates, including 1 fold-out frontispiece (general view of the city of Rouen), floral initials in black. Title printed in black and red. Binding scuffed; first and last leaves slightly soiled; small tear at the bottom of p. 15; typical ink transfer from the plates. First edition printed in a run of only 125 numbered copies (this one is no. 60). A rare work by Théodore de Jolimont, reproducing the drawings and plans from the *Livre des fontaines*, a famous manuscript created in 1525 by Jacques Le Lieur, a wealthy alderman of Rouen, to document the city’s water system and fountains. Illustrated with 49 lithographed and colored plates reproducing the miniatures from the original manuscript, along with historical notes by the author, it offers an exceptional visual record of Rouen’s architecture during the reign of Francis I, when the city was nicknamed the “city of a hundred bell towers” “The Book of Fountains, the result of the generous dedication of a magistrate, Jacques Le Lieur, a former alderman, was produced on the occasion of the installation of several gushing fountains during the episcopate of Cardinal d’Amboise, and partly at his own expense. This book meticulously details not only the sources and underground courses of the waters that feed the city’s fountains, as well as depictions of these very fountains, but also the streets lined with houses and the religious and civil buildings located along this route. It thus captures the monumental character of the city of Rouen at the beginning of the 16th century.” [Frère II, 108.] From the libraries of Henri-Marie-Gaston de Bonnechose (1800–1883), Archbishop of Rouen, and Étienne Deville (1873–1944), a Norman historian, archivist, and scholar, featuring their bookplates on the inside front cover. A fine copy.