[JEAN, prêtre]. ~ Florilège [spine title]. [France, c. 1890s].
8vo (206 × 118 mm), pp. [36] lithographed text, partly on tinted paper, plus 36 tall, narrow lithographs (each c. 62 mm wide) pasted to versos of each page, most hand coloured. Contemporary quarter morocco, spine with 4 raised bands and gilt bee tools, glazed green endpapers. Inscription to verso of final leaf: ‘Pour Maman, avec toute ma tendresse! Très bon anniversaire et mes plus gros bisous le 24.02.93 David’.
A curious florilegium, with extensive lithographed devotional text, presumably after the handwriting of author (’Jean, prêtre’) and a series of handcoloured lithographs. The latter include 31 of flowers (marigold, violet, primula, iris, cornflower, honeysuckle etc) which are paired with a description and devotional meditation on the opposite page. The others depict a hermit, a memento mori, a decorative contents list and (at the end) women in a religious procession with a banner. At least one them is signed ‘Jean’. The prefatory text is from Chateaubriand’s Le Martyrs: ‘En achevant ces mots, Zacharie s’arrêta, me montra le ciel où nous devions nous retrouver un jour, et, sans me laisser le temps de me jeter à ses pieds, il me quitta après m’avoir donné sa dernière leçon. C’est ainsi que Jésus-Christ dont il imite l’exemple, se plaisoit à instruire ses disciples, en se promenant au bord du lac de Génésareth, et faisoit parler l'herbe des champs et le lis de la vallée’.
Although marked ‘Deposé’ on the first leaf, we have been unable to find any other copies or record of its publication. It was presumably printed in very small numbers.