Culture
Words by Michel Wlassikoff
Didot’s editions of poets Jacques Delille and Clotilde de Vallon
How poet and publisher Pierre Didot celebrated the art of printing and poetry through his and editions of renowned poets like Jacques Delille and the controversial Clotilde.
How poet and publisher Pierre Didot celebrated the art of printing and poetry through his and editions of renowned poets like Jacques Delille and the controversial Clotilde.
Pierre Didot is a lover of poetry; a poet himself, he wrote in verse his Épître sur les progrès de l'Imprimerie (1784). He published and/or printed some of the most famous poets of his time (like Delille) or Clotilde, a forgotten poet of the 15th century, whose authenticity of writings would be lastingly doubted. In these works, less solemn than his editions of the classics, he uses an illustration that can be described as pre-romantic.
In this article are presented:
- Delille, Jacques, The Man of the Fields, or the French Georgics. New expanded edition, with figures. In Paris, from the printing house of P. Didot the elder. Chez Levrault, Schoell et Cie, 1805, in-8 (21.7 x 13.8 cm),225 pp. With frontispiece, eight head vignettes and four copper engravings by Catel
- Poems by Marguerite-Éléonore-Clotilde de Vallon-Chalys, from Madame de Surville, French poet of the 15th century, published by Ch. VandebourgIn Paris: from the Printing House of P. Didot the elder, Year XII (1804). In-12, 257 pp. The original edition dates from 1803. Illustrations engraved by F. Fortier after Jean-Baptiste Debret and by B. Roger after Alexandre Desenne.
Estienne school library.
