Le petit gastronome, almanach pour l’année 1810

64mo (28x18 mm). 64 pp. Engraved throughout, with 8 full-page illustrations. Pamphlet-stitched in contemporary (editor’s?) red straight-grained morocco, borders rolltooled in gilt with gilt centre-piece of a dog, spine gilt, edges gilt. Stain at head of title-page, some creasing to corners, a few light marks, textblock loose, very slight wear to extremities.

Rare miniature almanac for 1810 on a gastronomic theme, published during the Empire by Pierre-Étienne Janet. The volume begins with Marc-Antoine Madeleine Désaugiers’s (1772-1827) gastronomic song ‘Il faut boire et manger’, each page of lyrics with a facing engraving, the scenes depicted including people eating at a table and the harvesting of grapes. This is followed by collections of mottos for girls and then boys, with references to gluttony, Bacchus, and wine, and the volume ends with a calendar for the year (St Napoleon’s Day is celebrated on 16 August). Pierre-Étienne Janet (1746-1830) began his career as a binder before branching out into bookselling, specialising in almanacks and music.