DE GONET, Jean. ~ Una Lauda di Francesco d'Assisi.
No. 2 of only 60 copies printed on handmade Amalfi paper. Linocut on title page engraved by Paola Frattaroli from one of the miniatures of the Lauda: the Rule of the Poor Clares in the Veronese monastery of Sancta Maria Mater Ecclesiae. Pp. Bound in 1988 by Jean de Gonet, signed and dated on turn-ins, in full tan and onlaid green textured leather with a revorim semicular section with metal screws, lettered in red metallic foil, reverse calf pastedowns, original floral printed wrappers bound in, housed in the original stiff card chemise and slipcase. In exceptionally good condition.
A recovered text of the Franciscan Lauda was printed at “the very private press” of Gino Castiglioni & Alessandro Corubolo, who with Gian Paolo Marchi, dedicated it to their friends as a New Year greeting in 1986. The two opened the important and elegant Officino Chimerea in 1960, it ran until 2001 and then started up again in 2018-2023.
Jean de Gonet b.1950 is a Parisian designer bookbinder who likes to experiment with different materials in his bindings. Having starting binding as a schoolboy, he set up his own business in Paris in 1973. In 1977 he exhibited some bindings on modern books and was noticed by Parisian booksellers for his radical approach and fresh style. The curators of the Bibliothèque Nationale also spotted his work and he was asked to represent the younger generation in a 1978 great exhibition of contemporary bookbinding alongside Monique Matthieu and Georges Leroux. He became well known for his revolutionary binding techniques using visible sewing structures and unusual materials.