843J QUILLET, Claude, (1602-1661 ) [William Oldisworth, translator; Elisha Kirkall, engraver]

Callipædiæ : The Art of getting pretty children, In four books translated from the original Latin of Claudius Quillettus. By several hands.

London: Printed for Bernard Lintott at the Cross Keys between the Two Temple Gates in Fleetstreet, 1710                                                   Price $3,200

Octavo: 16 x 10 cm. Signatures A-M4.. Frontispiece, facing title and plates, facing pp. 1,16,31 and 47, not counted in the signatures or pagination. First English edition. Bound in Contemporary speckled sheep boards framed with single gilt fillet, spine in six compartments between raised bands, recent Morocco lettering piece gilt. Rubbing and scuffs to boards and spine, joints skillfully repaired, binding now sturdy and secure. Pages generally clean, with the plates in deep, rich impressions.   

First Edition in English of this neo-Latin poem on procreation, pregnancy, and the raising of children, the translation of which (from the French) is attributed in subsequent editions to William Oldisworth.):  complete with all five full-page engravings by Elisha Kirkall (the plates apparently were not ready when the book was issued and are often lacking, as with all three copies at the British Library) and four final index and advertisement leaves. This is quite a poem, very suggestive and informative! First published in Leiden, in 1655, and in Paris, in 1656. A Latin version was issued in London in 1708; two editions in English (the other printed for John Morphew) appeared in 1710 and in 1712. The French abbe Claude Quillet’s poem concerns not only raising children but also choosing the right wife, and offers thoughts on marriage, divided into four books: “The First treats of the Nature and Variety of Beauty, and of the Choice of a Wife. The Second, of Marriage and Enjoyment, with Laws and Rules relating to both, from Nature and Astrology. The Third, of Conception, and Imagination. The Fourth and Last, of the Beauty of the Mind, of Education and Virtue, and of the Variety of Climes, Customs, and Manners.” 

“KIRKALL, ELISHA (1682?–1742), engraver, born at Sheffield in Yorkshire about 1682, was son of a locksmith, from whom he learnt to work and engrave on metal. Walpole, Redgrave, and others erroneously give him the christian name of Edward. About 1702 he came to London, where he was employed ‘to grave arms, ornaments, etch and cut stamps in hard mettal for printing in books for several years’ (see Vertue in Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23076). He also studied drawing in the new academy in Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. He married early in life, as appears from his trade card, preserved in the print room of the British Museum (reproduction in Linton’s ‘Masters of Wood-engraving’), which bears the names of Mr. Elisha and Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkall, and the date 31 Aug. 1707. This card was cut in relief on metal, and not on wood, as sometimes stated. Kirkall has been classed (see Chatto and Jackson’sTreatise on Wood-engraving) as a wood-engraver, and credited with the revival of the art in the eighteenth century. He is also claimed as the first exponent in England of the white-line intaglio manner of wood-engraving, afterwards brought to such perfection by Thomas Bewick [q. v.] It is very doubtful, however, whether he engraved on wood at all. “ DNB

Foxon,; O 142 ; English Short Title Catalog; English Short Title Catalog,; T67282; Case,253 ; Wellcome IV p. 457.

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