(STENOGRAPHY). Antoine�REYNIER. ~ Souvenirs sténographiques. Ou, Traité de la Sténographie considérée dans tous ses développements. [?Paris:] 1825-[6].
Manuscript, folio (335 × 220 mm), pp. [2], 157, [1] plus two folding leaves at end. Calligraphic title with watercolour and the author’s name in reverse, calligraphic drophead titles to each of the four parts with blue wash, text and numerous thumbnail drawings within double ruled borders. Contemporary green straight-grain half morocco. Corners worn, rubbed, but still very good, internally fresh.
A complete manuscript course of stenography, or shorthand ― the art of writing ‘aussi vite que la parole’, finely written with numerous thumbnail drawings. Divided into four parts (introduction, pronunciation, punctuation and an atlas) with an errata, a table of contents and two sheets of stenographic examples or exercises.
The ‘Atlas’ supplies description of the stenographic signs in 13 charts, with 51 finely drawn vignettes giving the figurative equivalent of the stenographic signs and their pronunciation. Among them we find the links of a chain for representing an open ‘a’ (as in anneaux), a radiating halo for an ‘o’ (as in oréole), a drunkard for the ‘i’ (ivrogne), a gallows for the ‘p’ (potence), a cat for the ‘ch’ (chat), and so on, including a funnel, lyre, clock, umbrella, falls, arrow and gondola, the morphology of the signs given an ideogrammatic cue as a mnemonic. The whole represents a complete teaching system aimed at the aspiring stenographer.