Gailhabaud, Jules
L’architecture du Ve au XVIIe siècle et les arts qui en dépendent. La sculpture, la peinture murale, la peinture sur verre, la mosaique, la ferronerie, etc. Publiés d’après les travaux inédits des principaux architectes francais et étrangers.
Paris, A. Morel 1869-72.
Full Description
Large folio. 4 vols. (4) + 56pp, plates I-LXXXI (of which 1 chromolitho accounting for 2 nos, rest engraved, including 6 double-page accounting for 2 nos each) ; (4) + 120pp, plates I-CXVII (of which 7 double-page chromolitho accounting for 4 nos each, 19 chromolitho accounting for 2 nos each, rest engraved, including 5 double-page accounting for 2 nos each) ; (4) + 74pp, plates I-XCVIII (of which 6 double chromolitho accounting for 4 nos each, 9 chromolitho accounting for 2 nos each, rest engraved) ; (4) + 166pp, plates I-CV (plate XXIX called for but not present ; 2 double-page chromolitho accounting for 4 nos each, 9 chromolitho accounting for 2 nos each, rest engraved, including 5 double-page accounting for 2 nos each). Contemporary quarter morocco, gilt. Spine of one volume discoloured and chipped at head and foot, another spine chipped with loss of surface at head, but a good set, clean and fresh internally. From the library of the Belgian architect Jules Brunfaut.
These large and handsome volumes by Gailhabaud, ostensibly providing coverage of architecture and the allied arts from the 5th century to the 17th century, concentrate in practice on buildings of the middle ages and their interior decoration and contents. The first two volumes are largely concerned with church architecture, wall paintings and stained glass, the third volume with domestic architecture and public buildings, and the fourth with church furnishings. Their attraction for architects and others at the time of their publication was principally the quality of their illustrations, reproduced from drawings by Adolphe Berty and various competent architectural draughtsmen of the time, but Gailhabaud’s discussions of disputed points of architectural and art history also repay study (they come as commentaries to individual plates or to groups of plates rather than as a continuous narrative). It is to be noted that these volumes will together weigh at least 23 kilos when packed, with consequences for postal costs, but with that in mind we have priced them at a relatively modest level.