PRIZE FOR A 14-YEAR-OLD - INSTRUCTIVE BIOGRAPHIES FOR CHILDREN

[Loriquet, Jean Nicolas]: Particularites édifiantes sur la vie et la mort de quelques jeunes étudians. Anvers: Chez J. B. Hierstraeten, Imprimeur, Rempart du Lombard, 1828.

Second edition of this instructive book for children written by French Jesuit Jean Nicolas Loriquet (d.1845). The text provides short accounts of fifteen boys and young men who died at an early age, and offers their lives as a model for young readers. There is a table of contents at the back of the book as well as a list of other books available ‘chez le même Libraire’. Jean Nicolas Loriquet published this book under the initials A. M. D. G., an abbreviated form of the Jesuit motto (Ad maiorem Dei gloriam). All of Loriquet’s books were published anonymously or under these initials in order to protect his identity. 

This copy was awarded in 1835 to Ernest de Laminne, who would appear to have been fourteen at the time. Given the content of the book, it is unsurprising to see it being offered here as a prize for a young boy.  We have seen three copies of this book (in person or digitally), all of which have a different frontispiece (one of them - the Bodleian copy - uniquely among any we have seen described has three plates instead of one).  

Details

Printed. One volume, 16.5 cms x 10 cms in binding, duodecimo, pp. [4], 137, [4]. Frontispiece depicting young boy holding a lily before an altar, swathed in rays of light, angels above, with ‘S. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA, S. I.’ and biblical quotation underneath: ‘omina [sic.] detrimentum feci ---- ut Christum Lucrifaciam ad Philip 3. v. 8.’ Print signed ‘Cor v Merlen.’

Quarter bound in tan sheep and marbled paper over boards, corners tipped with vellum. Gold-tooled red label to spine (PARTI ÉDIFIA), gold-tooled decoration to spine, gold tooled lettering to base of spine (BEAURI). Blue edges. 

Condition (textblock): light browning, flaw to pp. 23-4. Condition (binding): rubbing and slight wear, cracking to top joint, loss to headcap.  

Provenance: prize bookplate to front pastedown for Mr de Laminne Ernest, Liège, le 27 Août 1835 (cf. Geneall record for Ernest de Laminne, b. 1821 in Liège, d. 1888 in Liège). 

Bibliography:

OCLC shows a copy at the Bodleian Library but no others outside mainland Europe. 

Backer-Sommervogel vol. V, cols. 7 and 17. 

Geneall record for Ernest de Laminne (1821-1888), last accessed by us 13 December 2023 via https://geneall.net/en/name/1102355/ernest-de-laminne/