La Bibliophilie in France - Part 1 of 3 & The ILAB Breslauer Prize For Bibliography

Bibliophilie & création littéraire (1830-1920)
by Nicolas Malais

Published by Cabinet Chaptal in 2017

Nicolas is one of the younger members of the French antiquarian booksellers association, SLAM and proprietor of Librairie Malais in Paris' 6eme.

Nicolas Malais, who holds a PhD in French Language, Literature and Rare Books is also editor of various publications on Edmond Rostand and Remy de Gourmont and professor at Paris' Université de l'Ouest (Master Métiers du livre et de l’édition).

The book wants to shed a new light on the importance of bibliophilia in French literature between 1830 and 1920.

It is divided into three parts: the first part deals with what bibliophilia exactly meant in 19th-century France and focuses on key figures such as Charles Nodier; the second part discusses bibliophilia as a literary source; the third part analyses the book as an object as it was produced and used in the period between 1870 and 1920 with particular view of the link between the experiences of poets such Mallarmé and Apollinaire and book design.

The book can be purchased from the publishers here. >> Cabinet Chaptal

Les Gardiens de Bibliopolis
by Jean-Paul Fontaine

Published by L’Hexaèdre in Paris, 2015

With a foreword by Yann Sordet, Director of the Bibliothèque Mazarine

The book opens with a preface by Yann Sordet and contains the biographies of 160 French bibliophiles, from the 16th to the 20th century ranging from De Thou to Rahir, with a main focus on the libraries which these men spent so much time and effort during their life creating.
It is through the catalogue of their libraries, according to Fontaine, that we really get to know the personality and the life of these important collectors.

The author, a physician, is also known as “Le Bibliophile Rhemus” and runs a blog: histoire-bibliophilie.blogspot.fr

The book can be purchased from the publishers here >>L’Hexaèdre

La Police des métiers du livre à Paris au siècle des Lumières. “Historique des libraires et imprimeurs de Paris existans en 1752” de l’inspecteur Joseph d’Hémery
by Jean-Dominique Mellot, Marie-Claude Felton & Élisabeth Queval

The book, a critical edition of an extremely interesting document, the report of police officer Joseph d'Hémery, gives a unique insight into the history of book printing and the book trade of mid 18th-century Paris.

Joseph d’Hémery (1722-1806) was responsible for the control and censorship of Paris bookshops and printing houses between 1748 and 1773. This extraordinary document is published with the annotations by Jean-Dominique Mellot, Curator at the the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF), the historian Marie-Claude Felton and Élisabeth Queval from the University of Montréal.

Worthy a fictional story, the character of D'Hémery lived a very real life and career within the Paris police. D'Hémery, a man of action and information became specialized in the surveillance of Paris bookstores and literary men. The "history of booksellers" is a document, part of the large Anisson-Dupéron collection, kept in the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of France. Rarely prolix and often enlightening, it is an irreplaceable testimony about censorship and the trade of booksellers and printers in Paris in the Age of the Enlightenment.

The book can be purchased here: >> Les Editions de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France


The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography is sponsored by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers with the generous support of the B.H. Breslauer Foundation.

This prestigious prize in the field of bibliographical studies is awarded every fourth year to the most significant reference work within a selection of scholarly books on bibliography, published in the previous years and submitted to the Prize jury.

The B.H.Breslauer Foundation who have provided an endowment since 2010, was set up by Dr. B.H. Breslauer, one of the most recognized antiquarian booksellers in the 20th century with a keen interest in bibliography and bibliophily.

The jury considers publications relating to bibliography in a very broad sense from textual bibliography to history of the book, bookbinding, papermaking, type-founding, library catalogues, short-title catalogues of a single author or typographer and further afield.