Beschreibung:

Née de La Rochelle, Jean-Baptiste-François. "Bibliotheca [corrected to Bibliographia] Aldina sive catalogus omnium editionum quas Venetiis et alibi Manutii et Turrisani excuderunt vel excudi fecere.” Autograph manuscript on paper. [Paris: before 1796]
An unpublished bibliography of the Aldine Press, a working draft for an intended larger work, which was to contain also biographical information. The compiler outlines the wide scope of his project in notes on the upper endleaves: he will mention or identify first editions, editions with copies printed on vellum or blue paper, editions containing a catalogue of books available from the Aldine press, assess the financial worth of Aldine editions, mention those who have collected Aldines—and he reminds himself to always verify dates and colophons, to mention Plantin’s admiration for Paolo Manuzio’s editions, and to check eventually his index against Gesner’s Pandectae.
The editions are listed in chronological order, 1494 to 1597, with separate lists of undated editions, and of books published by the Accademia Veneziana (placed following the Aldine editions of 1558–1559). The Lyonese counterfeits are included as part of the entry for the relevant Aldine edition. Née de La Rochelle evidently worked with easy access to the stock of Antoine-Augustin Renouard (1765–1853), whose copies he identifies by various sigla (“R”, “R v”, “Renouard vu”). He records special copies, printed on large paper, blue paper, or vellum, with reference to their owners, and their appearances in the auction sale rooms.
Née de La Rochelle (1751–1838) was the son of a magistrate in the Paris Parlement, and grandson of the writer Jean Née de La Rochelle (1692–1772). He was apprenticed in 1765 to his stepfather, Jean-Baptiste Gogué, a bookseller on the quai des Augustins, with whom he worked as a partner from 1773 until 1786, when he inherited the business and transferred it to the rue du Hurepoix. In 1793, he sold it to his brother-in-law, Jacques-Simon Merlin, and retired to La Charité-sur-Loire, where he wrote a long series of books and practiced as a Justice of the Peace.
An auction conducted after Née de La Rochelle’s death describes a later version of the present manuscript, entitled “Biographia et Bibliographia Aldina, contenant les vies des Alde Manuce et des Torresani, leurs parens et leurs associés, le catalogue général et raisonné de toutes leurs éditions connues, depuis l’an 1480 jusques à l’an 1596, par ordre chronologique et ensuite par ordre des matières,” in two volumes, dated 1796 (Bonnefons de Lavialle, Fournel & Jacques-Simon Merlin, Catalogue des livres composant la bibliothèque de feu M. Née de la Rochelle, Paris, 14 January–6 February 1839, pp. iv-v). These volumes were not offered in the auction, but in a nine-volume set of “Oeuvres et notes bibliographiques de Jean François Née de La Rochelle” acquired elsewhere by the Bibliothèque nationale. They are replete with annotations and tipped-in slips providing modifications or additions to the entries, and it is evident that the work was quite far from completion.
In his contribution to the André Jammes Festschrift, T. Kimball Brooker summarizes two letters that Renouard wrote to Née de La Rochelle in October–November 1796. In these, Renouard encourages Née de La Rochelle to persevere, and offers his assistance—yet Née de La Rochelle seemingly abandons the project. In 1803, Renouard publishes his Annales de l’imprimerie des Alde, containing essentially everything that appears in Née de La Rochelle’s 1796 manuscript: the same biographies, the same catalogues of editions, everything except for Renouard’s whimsical addition of lists of books printed in imitation of Aldine editions with analogous dolphin and anchor devices. Neither in this, nor in the two subsequent editions of the Annales does Renouard credit Née de La Rochelle’s research, referring to him just once, disparagingly, as a “homme de lettres” who had misunderstood the relation of Niccolò Manassi and the younger Manuzio (third edition, p. 476). Who knows, Brooker concludes, if Née de La Rochelle had possessed more resolve—he left several books in fragmentary drafts—perhaps Renouard would not have compiled the Annales, and Née de La Rochelle would enjoy the renown and glory we now accord to Renouard?
8vo (177 x 115 mm). Manuscript on paper, 215 pages on 192 leaves (including 19 blank leaves at end, plus two leaves of addenda (for 1545 and 1551) bound or laid in on blue paper, extensive notes in another hand on front binder's blanks. Ruled in red.
Laid in is an autograph letter signed by Philippe Renouard ("Ph. Renouard"), 2 pages (215 x 135 mm) on Typographie Philippe Renouard letterhead, Paris, 11 September 1918, to unidentified correspondent, explaining relationship of A.-A. Renouard to Née de la Rochelle.
binding: Contemporary French mottled calf (182 x 122 mm), flat spine, richly gilt in six false compartments, maroon morocco title label in second, marbled endpapers, blue marbled edges, red silk ribbon-marker. (Extremities worn, joints cracked.)
provenance: Baptiste-François Née de la Rochelle (author) — “Fernand Josselin”(? Gosselin? Tousselin?; inscription and exlibris). acquisition: Purchased from Librairie Paul Jammes, Paris, 2003. 
references: Brooker, “André Jammes and Aldine Press Bibliographies, Published and Unpublished,” in Le livre, la photographie, l’image & la lettre: essays in honor of André Jammes (Paris, 2015), pp. 107–122; Grolier/Legacy 20.