This work offers for the first time a complete list of all books published wholly or partially in the French language before 1601. Based on twelve years of investigations in libraries in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere, it provides an analytical short-title catalogue of over 52,000 bibliographically distinct items, with reference to surviving copies in over 1,600 libraries worldwide. Many of the items described are editions and even complete texts fully unknown and re-discovered by the project. French Vernacular Books is an invaluable research tool for all students and scholars interested in the history, culture and literature of France, as well as historians of the early modern book world. For vols. III & IV please go to French Books III & IV.

metropolitan France as well as by francophone authors from Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, Belgium and Switzerland, One Hundred Great French Books offers a rich, varied, and multicultural panorama of one of the most beloved and inspiring literatures in the world." --Book Jacket.

French Books III & IV complete a comprehensive bibliographical survey of all books published in France in the first age of print. It lists over 40,000 editions printed in France in languages other than French during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries together with bibliographical references, an introduction and indexes. It draws on the analysis of over 3,000 collections situated in libraries throughout the world. French Books will be an invaluable research tool for all students and scholars interested in the history, culture and literature of France, as well as historians of the early modern book world. For vols. I & II please go to French Vernacular Books.

How was the Book of Hours created and used as a book and what did it mean to its owners?

Based on the true story of Belle da Costa Greene, a woman who defied all odds to carve out a destiny of her own choosing, this is a richly imagined novel bursting with atmosphere, lush period detail, and many unforgettable characters. New York in the 1900s. A young girl fascinated by rare books defies all odds and becomes the director of one of the country's most prestigious private libraries. It belongs to the magnate J. P. Morgan, darling of the international aristocracy and one of the city's richest men. Flamboyant, brilliant, beautiful, Belle is among New York society's most sought after intellectuals. She also hides a secret. Although she looks white, she is African American, the daughter of a famous black activist who sees her desire to hide her origins as the consummate betrayal. Torn between history's ineluctable imperatives and the freedom to belong to the society of her choosing, Belle's drama, which plays out in a violently racist America, is one that resonates forcefully, and illuminatingly even today. The fruit of years of research and interviews, Alexandra Lapierre's magnificent novel recounts the struggles, victories, and heartbreaks of a woman who is free, astonishingly determined, daring, and fully, exuberantly alive.