GAY, Jules
Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour, aux femmes, au mariage.
Paris, J. Gay, 1864£250.00
4to, pp. xi, 810, (iii). Roman letter, some Italic. Light age yellowing, slightly foxed throughout, small tear to blank upper margin of half title. In C19 black half morocco over marbled boards, by J. Higham, aer, hand-written labels to spine. Stamp of booksellers Henry Sotheran to endpapers and outer and upper edges.
2nd edition of Gay’s famous Bibliographie. Jules Gay (1809-1883) was an editor, bibliographer, and socialist thinker. His wife, the militant feminist and socialist Jeanne-Désirée Véret, was an ardent proponent of gender equality in the aftermath of the 1848 revolution, and became president of the women’s section of the First International in 1866. The first edition of Gay’s Bibliographie in 1861 had been limited to only 300 copies, but its popularity led to further editions; the edition of 1864 was revised and augmented, and included a new alphabetical index. The works listed in Gay’s Bibliographie are drawn from a wide range of genres and fields, such as theology (the catalogue starts with The Song of Songs), jurisprudence, the arts and sciences, literature, and history, in French, English, German, Latin, Italian and Spanish. All the works however share some connection to the same general topic: women and sex. Each work is listed with its full title, the name of its author(s), a brief account of its contents, its estimated worth and recorded sale prices, and indications as to whether it had ever been the object of persecution or condemnation.
Besterman I, 951