Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation / 1st semester... Lot 18

Magasin d'Éducation et de Récréation / 1st semester 1864. Paris, Bibliothèque d'Éducation et de Récréation, J. Hetzel et Cie, 1864. Large single in-8°. Publisher's full violet percaline boards. No mention of binder. Marbled endpapers. Gilt edges. No mention of the title or year on the spine or on the first cover. The mention "Couronné par l'Académie Française" appears above the title block on the cover. Here is an amazing curiosity! Up to page 288 (36th quire), these are indeed printed issues of the Magasin, but, from the following page, the texts are now entirely handwritten, with a very good student's pen, and the illustrations redrawn with a remarkable talent, with, sometimes, variations in the shadows and lights, and this until the end of the semester. As the handwriting requires more space than the typesetting, this volume comprises 472 pages instead of 380 (but on the same paper, all with the three gilt edges). Not all the illustrations of the printed version are included in this "manuscript", but they are nevertheless very numerous and overwhelmingly accurate. Apparently, the little boys or, more probably, the little girls (one can distinguish several writings) who were missing pages 288 to 380 of this first semester of 1864, had the complete set of issues lent to them. What can I say except that the very talented and patient children went to a lot of trouble to copy them, a real "Roman job" that they carried out until the table of contents! Perhaps this collective work was done at school? In view of the excellence of this work, we suppose that these children were not of the "first age", to use the Hetzelian denomination... A unique and moving piece, a museum piece we should say! Split endpapers. Covers and spines rubbed. Copy unstuck.