Beschreibung:

Piles, Roger de. Abregé de la vie des peintres, avec des réflexions sur leurs ouvrages, et un traité du peintre parfait, de la connoissance des desseins, & de l'utilité des estampes. Paris: François Muguet, 1699
First edition of Roger de Piles' work on the lives of artists, arranged by school, with an introductory section on the concept of the perfect painting, the use of drawings and prints, and how to assess the quality of a painting (in a subsequent work he even decided to rate the artists, giving points out of twenty). He opines that the drawings of Rembrandt display as much skill as his finished paintings; and he himself owned a considerable collection of them, which he presumably obtained during his time in the Netherlands, despite being imprisoned there for four years on charges of espionage.
The binding with the arms of the duc d'Orléans cannot with certainly be attributed to either Philippe de France or his son Philippe, though the designer of the frontispiece, Antoine Coypel later became painter to the younger Philippe.
12mo (163 x 93 mm). Roman type, 31 lines plus headline. collation: â8 ê2 A6 B-Z8.4 Aa-Yy8.4: 280 leaves. Engraved frontispiece after Coypel, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. (Occasional light browning.)
binding: Contemporary French red morocco gilt (169 x 104 mm), central gilt arms of the duc d'Orléans [Olivier 2562 and 2566, but no exact match], gilt fleurs-de-lys in corners and in spine compartments, edges marbled and gilt. (Extremities slightly rubbed, lower corner of upper cover worn.)
provenance: Philippe de France, duc d'Orléans (1640-1701), or perhaps his son Philippe (1674-1723), arms on binding — Dominique Courvoisier, booklabel, sale, Binoche & Giquello, Paris, 14 February 2018, lot 61. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: USTC 6131688