Cours d'instruction d'un sourd-muet de naissance, et qui peut être utile à l'éducation de ceux qui entendent et qui parlent [...].

8vo: lvi-488 pp.; 8 pl. (foxing, folds on some lvs, pencil annotation on half-title).

Contemp. polished red long-grain morocco, gilt rolls surrounding the boards, flat spine gilt and decorated, turquoise moiré silk endpapers, a.e.g. (some sm. stains and scratches, used turn-ins, cuts and corners, wormhole on a joint, worm attack on a corner).

Second edition (1st ed.: 1799) of this classic manual on education of deaf and dumb people, ill. with 8 folding tables, of which one showing dactylology (the manual alphabet). Remarkable copy with a curious handmade modification on the title-page: under "Seconde édition" (covering the mention "Prix, 6 fr. broché" and the fillet printed over the imprint) a laurel crown is finely drawn with pen and ink surrounding the northern hemisphere surmounted by a crown and a cypher with a halo, all together placed into a cloud radiating light all around. The Abbé Sicard (1742-1822) was the successor of the Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée, who founded the first public school for the deaf in Paris, in 1760.
Ref. CCFr.
Prov. Engr. armorial library label with ms. mentions (inscription removed). - J.-M. Doumic (20th-c. bookpl.). - Librairie Alain Brieux, Paris (bookseller's label).
Joined: L'Épée, Ch.-M. de - Autogr. letter to Sicard. [Paris, 1789]. Bifolio of blue paper, unsigned, red wax stamp (attached to an endpaper with tape). A ms. annotation signed by Sicard and dated Paris, 2-11-1809, authenticates and dates the document: "je soussigné déclare que cette lettre est écrite de la propre main de mon illustre maître, le cèlèbre abbé de L'Épée qui ne signait jamais autrement [...]".