Calendrier pour l’Année M. DCC. LXXIII. Présenté A Monsieur de Fontanieu, Intendant & Contrôleur Général des Meubles de la Couronne, &c. Par Leclabart.
[Paris]: [1772/73]. Manuscript on vellum, in almanac format. Contemporary French red morocco, the covers framed by a gilt triple-fillet border with small corner tools; at the centre of each board an oval recessed panel containing a hand-painted armorial miniature in gouache, protected by a transparent varnish. The arms are those of Pierre-Élisabeth de Fontanieu (azure, a chevron between three stars), within pink and blue mantling, surmounted by a coronet and set against a radiating sky, enclosed by a gilt-tooled oval border. Spine with five raised bands, compartments gilt-ruled and tooled with small rosettes; second compartment lettered Année 1773. Gilt board edges and turn-ins. Blue silk doublures. Front and rear paper flyleaves ruled in a single black frame. [27] leaves. Vellum leaves clean and bright; colours fresh and well preserved. Paper flyleaves lightly toned. Binding with light rubbing and minor edge wear; slight surface wear to the varnished armorial miniatures; spine ends gently rounded. Overall a very well-preserved example.
A refined Parisian presentation almanac on vellum, representing Leclabart not as a copyist but as the author of an original manuscript work, prepared for one of the principal custodians of the French royal collections.
A complete manuscript almanac for the year 1773, entirely written and decorated in the hand of Jacques Fucien Leclabart and prepared as a presentation copy for Pierre-Élisabeth de Fontanieu (1731–1784), intendant and contrôleur général of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, noted for his patronage of the decorative arts and the refurbishment of the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble.
The manuscript opens with the calligraphic title page, followed immediately by a group of supplementary sections. These include Des Éclipses (with a small pen-drawn diagram labelled Orient, Occident, Midi, and Septentrion), on the opposite site Comput ecclésiastiques, Festes mobiles, Les Quatre-Temps, Les Sept Planetes, and Les Signes du Zodiaque. These sections are written in brown ink, with headings and emphasis in red and blue, and are enclosed within red borders with a gilt outer frame.
The calendar proper follows, arranged month by month. Each month opens with the calendar entries, giving saints’ and feast days, dominical letters, lunar phases, and calendrical astronomical data, notably the times of sunrise and sunset. The text is written in a fine brown ink; month names are gilt; headings, feast days, and symbols are picked out in red. Each page is enclosed within red borders with a gilt outer frame. Each monthly calendar is followed by a facing pair of vellum leaves ruled to form accounting tables headed Gain and Perte, with the days numbered. The ruling is executed in blue and red lines, with an outer gilt frame; month names are written in blue or red ink. These Gain/Perte tables are unused.
The volume concludes with a two-page Récapitulation de l’Année 1773, listing the months vertically with corresponding Gain and Perte columns and a Total at foot. These final leaves are ruled and framed in the same manner as the monthly tables, maintaining complete visual consistency throughout the manuscript.
The manuscript is executed throughout on vellum with a restrained but refined palette. Ruling is in red and blue, with a thin gilt outer frame on each page. The principal text is in brown ink; headings, feast days, and liturgical highlights are in red, with occasional blue. Decorative elements are minimal and functional, limited to small stars and symbols and to the carefully ruled frames. The overall effect is sober and highly controlled, consistent with luxury presentation almanacs produced in Paris in the early 1770s, and fully in keeping with the documented calligraphic practice of Jacques Fucien Leclabart, characterized by precision, regularity, and clarity.
Jacques Fucien Leclabart (also recorded as Lesclabart, Léclabart, or L’Esclabart) was an active Parisian calligrapher and professional copyist in the later eighteenth century, working chiefly between about 1770 and 1785. He styled himself Membre de l’Académie royale d’Écriture de Paris and belonged to the body of Maîtres-Experts-Jurés-Écrivains, officially recognized specialists in handwriting and typographic imitation. Contemporary and later sources describe him as one of the most accomplished calligraphers of his generation, particularly admired for his ability to reproduce letterforms, layout, and woodcut imagery with exceptional precision. He is thought to have died around 1786, shortly before the dispersal of his library in 1790 (see: Notice de livres provenans de la bibliothèque de feu M. Leclabart).
Leclabart specialized in producing manuscript facsimiles of early printed books—especially incunables and xylo-typographic works—executed entirely with the pen. His copies reproduce not only the text but also the full mise-en-page and visual structure of the originals, often line by line. These works were not conceived as forgeries but as bibliophilic and scholarly substitutes at a time when genuine blockbooks and early printed editions were scarce. Among his best-documented productions are multiple manuscript facsimiles of the Speculum humanae salvationis and at least one complete facsimile of the Biblia pauperum. Examples of his work are preserved in major institutional collections, including the Bibliothèque nationale de France (ms. Français 13257), the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal (ms. 40), the British Library (Add. ms. 24014), the Russian National Library (Lat. F.I.650–651), and the John Rylands Library (Latin MS 510). His manuscripts circulated in prominent eighteenth- and nineteenth-century bibliophile collections and are cited in sale catalogues and bibliographical literature.
Works by Jacques Fucien Leclabart are scarce and are otherwise known chiefly through manuscript facsimiles of early printed books. No comparable manuscript almanac or other non-facsimile work by him has been identified, making this volume an unusually rare example of an original production.
References:
Блескон, А. В. (2017). Библии для «бедных» в собрании Отдела рукописей Российской национальной библиотеки. In Алексеев, А. А. (Ed.), Славянская Библия в эпоху раннего книгопечатания: К 510-летию создания библейского сборника Матфея Десятого (pp. 29–38). Санкт-Петербург: Издательство Пушкинского Дома; Bradley, J. W. (1888). A dictionary of miniaturists, illuminators, calligraphers and copyists: With references to their works and notices of their patrons. London: B. Quaritch; Friends of the National Libraries. (2022). Annual report for 2022. London: Friends of the National Libraries. (pp. 52–53); Gatch, M. McC. (2011). The Bibliotheca Parisina. The Library, 7th series, 12(2), 89–117.; Weitenkampf, F. (1943). What is a facsimile? Facsimile: “An exact copy.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 37(2), 114–130.
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Price: €28,000.00