Lutetiæ, vulgo, Paris, urbis Galliarum primariæ, non Europæ solius, sed orbis totius celeberrimæ prospectus
THE RAREST VIEW OF THE SUN KING’S PARIS
“The most famous city not just of Europe but of the World”
Paris: Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, 1669. Third state.
Twenty-four sheets joined: 8 woodcut sheets for the title, 10 etched-engraved sheets for the view (the panorama in 4, detail views in 4, vignettes in 2) and 6 sheets of letterpress text. 36” x 101 ½” framed, 94 5/8” x 29 ½” visible.
Backed on archival Japanese tissue. Tanned, particularly at the letterpress. Repaired chips and a small loss to the title-band (the “L” of “SOLIUS”). Facsimile repairs throughout the letterpress, particularly to the fifth and sixth columns of the French text and to the first column of the Latin text. Small facsimile to the left detail view (“Aspect Occidental du Pont neuf…”). A clean and rich impression.
On the left bank of the Seine, an influential publisher of maps and views named Nicolas Berey (1610–1665) operated from his shop Aux deux globes along the quai des Augustins. The location was at the heart of the print dealer’s district and served as both a retail establishment and the center of the Berey family’s extensive engraving production. Berey and then his son, Nicolas II, held the title Enlumineur de la Reine. Nicolas II died just six months after his father, leaving the running of Aux deux globes in Jeanne Berey’s (Nicolas I’s daughter) hands. Jeanne was married to Alexis-Hubert Jaillot (1632–1712), who expanded the firm that would continue in his family through the XVIIIc.
Berey and Jaillot made the most of the copper plates they had taken with the firm, and expanded the earlier Lutetiæ, vulgo, Paris, urbis Galliarum primariæ, non Europæ solius, sed orbis totius celeberrimæ prospectus,[1] drawn by Noël Cochin (1622–1695) with additions in woodcut (the title) and letterpress (the text in French and Latin). Whereas earlier views, such a those published by Merian and Zeiller, were taken from Belleville (northeast, the modern 19th and 20th arrondisements) or from Montmartre (north, 18th arr.), Cochin’s is taken from further south, east-northeast of the city center at Charonne (20th arr., toward Montreuil and Vincennes).
The central panoramic view, engraved on four large sheets each measuring 20 ¾” x 16”, measures nearly seven feet (over 2 meters) joined. Within the sweeping skyline the major landmarks are named: the Bastille rises prominently to the east, the Sorbonne and churches of the Latin Quarter cluster toward the center, and the palace complex of the Louvre anchors the western edge. The towers and spire of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame dominate all else.
The surrounding vignettes and underlying details — along with the voluminous text — transform the work from a simple topographical image into a visual encyclopedia of Parisian identity. Above the skyline hover coats of arms belonging to the monarchy, the city of Paris, and leading municipal officials. Those arms were gradually removed as their bearers died, left office or were attainted. The panels of letterpress (French at left, Latin at right) along the lower margin include commentary on the view, a historical narrative of Paris that discusses the first appearance of Lutetia (French Lutèce) in the writings of Julius Caesar and traces its growth over the succeeding centuries and kings. There is additionally a numbered index keyed to the panorama.
The first state of the engraving ([1662]) was produced one year after the 22-year-old Louis XIV declared absolute monarchy following the death of Cardinal Mazarin. Fitting the proud king’s ambitions for France, the Berey panorama is one of the earliest large-scale views of Paris conceived and engraved locally within the city itself, supplanting earlier and smaller views emanating from the Netherlands and Germany. Ironically, the Sun King was wary of the medieval streets and alleys of Paris, and so moved his court to Versailles.
This third state — the rarest — is the first to introduce textual revisions and minor alterations to the surrounding views, although the central panorama itself remained largely unchanged. A notable alteration appears in one of the subsidiary views depicting the Louvre and a staircase and fragmentary architectural elements appear where the Porte Neuve once stood, representing the disappearance of a gate that had been demolished between the early and later printings of the plate.
Surviving examples are extremely scarce, with only 2 examples (both the first state) recorded in American institutions: one at Princeton University Library and the at the Getty Research Institute. The Bibliothèque nationale de France is the only institution recorded as holding the second and third states, each in a sole example. One further mention of the work exists in the Catalogue de Livres et Estampes Relatifs à L’Histoire de la Ville de Paris et de ses Environs, Provenant de la Bibliothèque de Feu M. Hippolyte Destailleur, which documents the extensive library of the famous architect and Rococo revivalist upon his death. Finally, the engraving was mentioned in Sue Reed’s 1998 French Prints From the Age of the Musketeers, stating that the print was on loan to a traveling exhibition held in Boston, Ottawa, and Paris from 1998 to 1999. The whereabouts of M. Destailleur’s view, the parent Institution of the state that traveled to America, or whether either of these two examples the same as recorded by the BNF, remains unknown.
Boutier, Plans de Paris, 105C; Inventaire du fonds Français I.364. Not in Berty-Legrand.
[1] A prospect of Lutetia, commonly Paris, principal city of the French, most famous not only of Europe but of the whole world.
Item #JLR0843
Price: $250,000