Null LA VARENNE (François-Pierre de). Le Cuisinier François, teaching the way to…
Description

LA VARENNE (François-Pierre de). Le Cuisinier François, teaching the way to properly prepare and season all kinds of fatty and lean meats, vegetables, pastries, and other dishes that are used both on the tables of the great and the private. With an instruction for making jams. Last edition, increased and corrected. The Hague, Adrian Vlacq, 1656. In-12, 19th century lemon morocco, triple fillet and double framing in triplet fillet with rounding in the middles, iron with dove in the corners, spine decorated with the same iron with dove repeated between the nerves, interior roulette, gilt edges on marbling (Trautz-Bauzonnet). (6) ff. including the engraved frontispiece, 426 pp., (14) ff. Extremely rare edition, which according to Vicaire, is "the most esteemed of all" and "ranks among the Elzevier". Magnificent unsigned frontispiece, showing a cook who, bringing a dish, turns to the reader and seems to invite him. La Varenne (1618-1678) resolutely modernized cooking in the 17th century, which until then had been influenced by medieval and Italian Renaissance traditions; he was one of the first French cooks to take an interest in vegetables, introducing fatty sauces and the use of aromatic herbs, advocating the widespread use of pepper, moderating the use of spices, sugar and cooking with lard... He also conceived a new presentation of the cookbook, divided according to the order of the meals (soups, starters, roasts and entremets), all in a general order respecting the religious precepts: fatty days, lean days outside Lent, and Lent. In addition, La Varenne was the first to number his recipes, to use tables of contents, previously unknown in this type of work, and to assert himself as the author of his book by speaking in the first person. The works of this man, who was one of the first French cooks to pay attention to vegetables, were very successful, and Le Cuisinier français dominated the market of cookbooks during the second half of the 17th century; in spite of this, La Varenne remained the cook's squire for the Marquis d'Uxelles, governor of Chalon-sur-Saône (dedicatee of the book), from 1640 to his death. Nice copy. Spine slightly darkened. Slight stains. Vicaire, 496 - Livres en bouche, 107 - Willems, Elzevier, n° 1688.

77 

LA VARENNE (François-Pierre de). Le Cuisinier François, teaching the way to properly prepare and season all kinds of fatty and lean meats, vegetables, pastries, and other dishes that are used both on the tables of the great and the private. With an instruction for making jams. Last edition, increased and corrected. The Hague, Adrian Vlacq, 1656. In-12, 19th century lemon morocco, triple fillet and double framing in triplet fillet with rounding in the middles, iron with dove in the corners, spine decorated with the same iron with dove repeated between the nerves, interior roulette, gilt edges on marbling (Trautz-Bauzonnet). (6) ff. including the engraved frontispiece, 426 pp., (14) ff. Extremely rare edition, which according to Vicaire, is "the most esteemed of all" and "ranks among the Elzevier". Magnificent unsigned frontispiece, showing a cook who, bringing a dish, turns to the reader and seems to invite him. La Varenne (1618-1678) resolutely modernized cooking in the 17th century, which until then had been influenced by medieval and Italian Renaissance traditions; he was one of the first French cooks to take an interest in vegetables, introducing fatty sauces and the use of aromatic herbs, advocating the widespread use of pepper, moderating the use of spices, sugar and cooking with lard... He also conceived a new presentation of the cookbook, divided according to the order of the meals (soups, starters, roasts and entremets), all in a general order respecting the religious precepts: fatty days, lean days outside Lent, and Lent. In addition, La Varenne was the first to number his recipes, to use tables of contents, previously unknown in this type of work, and to assert himself as the author of his book by speaking in the first person. The works of this man, who was one of the first French cooks to pay attention to vegetables, were very successful, and Le Cuisinier français dominated the market of cookbooks during the second half of the 17th century; in spite of this, La Varenne remained the cook's squire for the Marquis d'Uxelles, governor of Chalon-sur-Saône (dedicatee of the book), from 1640 to his death. Nice copy. Spine slightly darkened. Slight stains. Vicaire, 496 - Livres en bouche, 107 - Willems, Elzevier, n° 1688.

Auction is over for this lot. See the results