Jean-Vincent Capronnier Gauffecourt privately issued from La Motte, near Lyon, Traité de la relieur des livres. This was the first separately-printed treatise on bookbinding in French. The author, Gauffecourt (1692-1766) was, according to Pollard, a talented amateur and a friend of J.-J. Rousseau and Mme d'Epinay. He installed a printing press in his house and printed several books in small editions.
Of this manual on bookbinding Gauffecourt is thought to have printed either 12 or 25 copies, of which Pollard could locate only a single extant copy in a private collection. He located manuscript copies at Cambridge University Library and in the Grolier Club, New York. The French text was reprinted with an English translation by Claude Benaiteau, and issued in an edition of 300 copies (Austin, Texas, 1987).
Pollard, Early Bookbinding Manuals (1984) no. 43.
Filed under: Bookbinding
