The Bibliotheca Parisina

Bibliotheca Parisiana —or in its French version Bibliotheca elegantissima Parisina —is a catalogue of the London bookdealer James Edwards for an auction of books, mainly consigned in Paris, held in London in March 1791. The catalogue has many shortcomings, as Arthur Rau noted in an important article in 1969, and the identity of the French consignor (if not unknown) has been obscure. This article expands on Rau's critique, drawing on recent publication to give a more precise account of the items given a false provenance from Claude d'Urfe by Edwards and considering more closely the quality of the descriptions in the catalogue, noting interesting divergences between the French and English versions. The consignor is firmly identified as Antoine Marie Pâris d'Illins (1746-1809), nephew of a well-known collector Jean Baptiste Pâris de Meyzieu (1718-1788), who is persistently named in the literature as the owner of the Bibliotheca Parisina. Pâris d'Illins, who seems to have been an active and knowledgeable bibliophile, was a military man who was to die in Napoleon's Spanish campaign. He apparently sold his most valuable books on the eve of his exile from France (with the Marquis de Lafayette) during the Revolution.