ADELINE (Jules). Parchment tracings of Jacques Le Lieur's Li - Lot 534

ADELINE (Jules). Parchment tracings of Jacques Le Lieur's Livre des fontaines (1525). 2nd half of the 19th c.]. In-plano (64 x 49 cm) with 31 plates in red chagrined half cloth jacket with corners (laces missing). Attractive set comprising 3 plates, including a title-page model for the book Rouen au XVIe siècle, based on decorations and lettering from the original manuscript, a painted reproduction in color of the original case for the Livre des fontaines, a second title-page model in color based on a leaf from the manuscript and a reproduction of Le Lieur's coat of arms, and 28 pencil tracings mounted on strong paper showing the courses of the Gaalor, Carville and Yonville fountains from the original parchments. The Grande vue de Rouen en 1525 is not reproduced here. In 1519, Jacques LE LIEUR (c. 1480, c. 1550), councillor-echevin of the city of Rouen, was commissioned to study the city's hydraulic network, and had maps made of each of the city's three main water supplies. The result is an illuminated work accompanied by 3 strips of parchment, each several meters long. In addition to the course of the canals, the latter include faithful representations of the city's monuments and public buildings. The quality and historical interest of these parchments make them among the most important in Rouen's archives. Rouen draughtsman, engraver and historian Jules ADELINE (1845-1909) devoted much of his work to Old Rouen. President of the Académie des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Rouen (1890-1891), he published in 1892: Rouen au XVIe siècle d'après le manuscrit de Jacques Le Lieur (1525), twenty etchings with text (Rouen, Lestringant). A very fine copy of one of the jewels in Rouen's archives. (Frère, II, p. 200 on Le Lieur)