Journal des Arts et Manufactures, Publie Sous la direction de la Commission Executive D'Agriculture et Des Arts

Paris: Journal Des Arts et Manufactures et de la Feuille du Cultivateur, 1794. First Edition. Two octavos, ii, 500; 624 pages, bound in green boards with gilt-lettering to spines. Illustrated throughout with fold-out plates. Text in French. A scarce and substantial Revolutionary-era French periodical devoted to the practical arts, manufactures, industry, and applied science, Journal des Arts et Manufactures offers a detailed contemporary record of technological and industrial activity in France during the 1790s. The present two-volume group comprises issues from An III and An IV of the French Republican calendar, corresponding approximately to 1794–1796, and includes extensive discussions of manufacturing processes, mechanical inventions, useful arts, industrial techniques, materials, and contemporary improvements intended for artisans, manufacturers, and readers interested in the advancement of commerce and industry. The first volume contains four folding engraved plates, while the second contains ten, the illustrations depicting machinery, apparatus, technical processes, and other subjects discussed in the accompanying text. Together, the volumes provide a valuable primary source for the study of French industrial history, technology, engineering, manufacturing, and the diffusion of practical scientific knowledge during the Revolutionary period. Of particular interest as an example of the era’s effort to systematize and disseminate useful technical information at a moment of profound political and economic change in France, the work stands at the intersection of Enlightenment science, early industrial development, and Revolutionary-era publishing. Some rubbing and wear, damage to tops of spines, some older institutional markings, occasional scattered foxing, tomb one is missing two plates and the final leaf of text, else in good + condition. Item #537

Price: $750.00