MILLIN Aubin-Louis Antiquités Nationales

Brunet III, 1723, Choay, F. (2019). Aubin-Louis Millin (1759-1818) Le Patrimoine en questions : Anthologie pour un combat (p. 77-83). Le Seuil. 

The first edition of this work, which is of great documentary value regarding French monuments, is lavishly illustrated with 250 separate copper-engraved plates.

In response to the ‘nationalisation’ of ‘national assets’ by decree from 1789 onwards – which led to the dispersal, sale, alteration or destruction of numerous buildings, tombs, funerary monuments, sculptures and works of art – Aubin-Louis Millin undertook the task of cataloguing the monuments featured in this volume. In it, he brings together descriptions of numerous historic monuments through text and images, a task which required the collaboration of many engravers such as Carpentier, Blanchard, Lemercier and Desmaison.

Thus, published during the revolutionary period, Millin’s work reflects a desire to conserve and preserve the memory of the nation’s cultural heritage. The five volumes consequently comprise a substantial collection of descriptions and engravings devoted to royal tombs, ecclesiastical monuments, inscriptions, sculptures, stained-glass windows and architectural features from abbeys, churches, monasteries and castles that had become the property of the Nation, some of which have since disappeared, notably: the Bastille, the Convents of the Celestines, the Jacobins and the Feuillants, the Porte Saint-Bernard and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Presented to the National Assembly, his work played a major role in fostering an awareness of cultural heritage.

The interior is very clean; the bindings are worn, with scuffing and chipping, wormholes, and areas where the leather is missing; one plate listed in the table of contents is missing.

Provenance: Maire Libraire (stamp on the front half-cover).