Ernest Renan / Alexandre Bida - Le Cantique des Cantiques - 1886

Full title: Le Cantique des Cantiques, traduit de l’hébreu par Ernest Renan, avec 25 eaux-fortes d’Edmond Hédouin et d’Émile Boilvin, d’après les dessins de Bida. First Edition. A beautiful copy of this portfolio, containing 34 unnumbered leaves loose in folds, with the text by Renan and the etchings by Edmond Hédouin and Émile Boilvin after designs by Alexandre Bida. The text pages are numbered (38) but plates, index and blanks are not (hence discrepancy with number of leaves). Renan’s French translation from the Hebrew is accompanied by his study of the poem’s plan, age and character. On Papier Vélin. Including eight full page plates preceded by captioned glassine guard and 16 large initials. (each with tissue protection). These are completed by 12 culs de lampe by Gustave Greaux. Finally, a beautiful engraved second title, and a vignette to the title page. (WorldCat includes the engraved title as a plate so sometimes nine plates are mentioned). Complete. The portfolio has a cloth spine and cream paper covered boards. This is in very good condition, with a little rubbing and marking only. Original ties are intact. Internally, the work is in beautiful condition, clean and tidy with no significant flaws. Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was a French painter, draughtsman, watercolourist, and lithographer, renowned for his Orientalist art and book illustrations. Born in Toulouse and trained under Eugène Delacroix. Bida travelled extensively in the Middle East, including Syria, Greece, and Turkey. He is particularly known for his Biblical illustrations. 50 x 38 cm. Conforms to WorldCat / OCLC: 279521. The Song of Songs is the most surprising book in the Bible: a frankly sensual love poem with no mention of God. Renan treated it as a secular love poem, Renan: the most notorious scholar in France. His Vie de Jésus (1863), a life of Jesus as a purely human figure, became one of the great scandals and bestsellers of the century. Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was a pupil of Delacroix who travelled in the Near East and became the leading Orientalist illustrator of the Bible. The etchings were by Edmond Hédouin and Émile Boilvin, two of the best reproductive etchers of the day. 8 full-page plates + 16 large etched initials + 1 engraved title = 25.

Estimation:€150

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