Classic of 18th-century Pedagogy, printed by Marie-Anne (née Guyard) Estienne (1736)

Rollin, Charles

[EARLY WOMAN PUBLISHER ~ 1736]. De la maniere d’enseigner et d’etudier les belles lettres, par rapport a l’esprit & au coeur

Paris: Chez la Veuve Estienne, 1736. Nouvelle edition. 12mo. Complete set of 4 volumes (some age toning to the text). Bound in contemporary French mottled calf, five raised bands on spine, red morocco lettering pieces in the second and third compartments, edges stained red, marbled pastedowns and endpapers. Some lower fore-corners bumped and scraped, headcap of vol. 4 chipped, overall in EXCELLENT CONDITION. Very good. Item #4434

BEAUTIFUL COPY OF ROLLIN'S IMPORTANT WORK ON THE TEACHING AND STUDY OF "BELLE LETTRES," A CLASSIC OF 18TH-CENTURY PEDAGOGY, PRINTED BY MARIE-ANNE (GUYARD) ESTIENNE, WIDOW OF JACQUES ESTIENNE THE ELDER. SHE ACHIEVED GREAT SUCCESS IN LATER YEARS THROUGH HER INDUSTRY AND BUSINESS ACUMEN.

Marie-Anne Guyard (a.k.a. Guiard) was the daughter of a wine-merchant. In 1714, after the death of her first husband, Charles-Francois Pochard (metal merchant), she married the successful printer-publisher Jacques Estienne. Upon his death in 1731, she continued the press and publishing operations (located on the rue Saint-Jacques "a la Vertu"). The present 4-volume set of Rollin's teaching and study guide was followed two years later by a 16-volume set of Rollin's "Histoire romaine" (1738-1748). From 1743 onward she worked in partnership with her eldest son Jacques (the Younger) to whom she sold 1/3 of the business for 110,000 livres (according to IRHT) -- a colossal sum in those days. They were joined in 1750 by her second son Robert, to whom she also sold 1/3 of the business for the same amount. According to a contemporary report, by 1752 she was "a very rich woman, for whom M. Rollin made a fortune on account of all the works of his that she printed. Abbe Antoine Pluche also contributed. She has just bequeathed and sold her business to her son and to Bauche's son." Marie-Anne Estienne died on May 13, 1753, leaving her children a large estate. As stated above, her two sons became printer-publishers; two of her four daughters married printer-publishers, one married a bourgeois merchant, and one married Daniel Coffin, conseiller du Roi.

Included herein are two priced lists of "Livres nouvellement imprimes" by her, the first in vol. I (5 pages), the second in vol. IV (2 pages), and we learn that the published price of the present edition -- unbound -- was 10 livres.

OUR SET IS IN MUSEUM QUALITY CONDITION AND IS SUITABLE FOR EXHIBITION AND STUDY.

See: Romeo Arbour, Dictionnaire des femmes libraires en France, 1470-1870, p. 219, and the CNRS IRHT (Insitut de recherche et d'histoire des textes) website.

Price: $2,100.00