LAGNIET (Jacques). Recueil des plus illustres proverbes. Divisés en trois livres. sl [Paris], sn [Jacques Lagniet], sd [1657-1663]. In-4 with [1] engraved title frontispiece (cut out and reassembled) and 48 engraved plates (out of 59) for the first book "Moral Proverbs" (all ch. 1-60); [1] engraved title frontispiece (cut out and reassembled) and 60 engraved plates (out of 71) for the second book "Joyful Proverbs" (all ch. 1-72); [1] engraved title frontispiece and 27 engraved plates (of 29) for the third book "Vie des Gueux" (all ch. 1-30); [1] engraved title frontispiece ("La Vie de Tiel Wlespiegle...") and 33 engraved plates for the fourth book (unnumbered). A total of 172 engraved plates. Missing plates 8, 13, 15, 17, 24, 25, 33, 34, 48, 49, 57 of book one; plates 2, 9, 21, 39, 41, 48, 49, 52, 61, 62, 71 of book two; plates 17, 28 for book three. Marbled basane, spine ribbed and decorated, title page, triple gilt fillet framing the boards with gilt flowers in the spandrels (18th century binding). Several plates restored, several small brown spots or light marginal spotting, brown stains on 3 or 4 plates towards the end. A collection of some of the most curious engravings, the composition of which varies from copy to copy. "The works published by Lagniet are an essential source for the study of popular life in the mid-seventeenth century." (cf. R.A. Weizert, En marge des proverbes de Lagniet, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Sept. 1967, p. 177). "Not only do we see an important period of history pass before our eyes, captured in more intimate detail than in the always somewhat pompous prints of Abraham Bosse, but we can also follow the development of the study of manners through these drollries and facetiousness" (John Grand-Carteret, Les Mœurs et la caricature en France). Brunet, usually severe, like most of his contemporaries, with regard to seventeenth-century engraving, gave this laudatory assessment: "[the engravings] lack delicacy and finish, but a kind of brutal and caustic verve, a frank gaiety, in reproduction of the popular manners and habits of the time, such are the titles that rightly recommend the work of this artist". (Brunet III, 767.)