Architecture.- Felibien (Michel) Histoire de l'Abbaye Royale de Saint-Denys en France, first edition, engraved frontispiece, 2 double-page plans and 11 plates, all but one double-page and mounted on stubs, engraved head-pieces & initials, occasional spotting, a good clean copy, ink inscription "Matt.H.Bloxam Rugby 1850" to front free endpaper and with his bookplate and that of Rugby School, contemporary mottled calf, rubbed, corners worn, rebacked, [BAL 1047], folio, Paris, Frederic Leonard, 1706.

⁂ Scholarly history of the abbey of Saint-Denis by Félibien (1666-1719), younger brother of the architectural writer and royal historiographer Jean Félibien des Avaux. In the design of the choir built in 1140-44 this was the first major building to incorporate the new elements of Gothic architecture as a complete structure, using pointed arches, a rib vault, ambulatory with radiating chapels, and flying buttresses. The plates include a record of the abbey’s treasury, containing precious items of French royal regalia subsequently lost during the French Revolution, and royal tombs also destroyed or damaged at the same time.

Matthew Holbeche Bloxam (1805-1888), author of one of the most widely esteemed books on English Gothic architecture to be published during the 19th century, running to twelve editions between 1829 and 1882. Bloxam was a solicitor in Rugby, Warwickshire, and he bequeathed his extensive library to Rugby School (sold in these rooms 18th November 2020).