aKEMPIS (Thomas): — De Imitatione Christi De Libri Quator.

[Paris] Impressium Parisiis Cura Edwini Tross 1858. FIRST TROSS EDITION. 24mo, 80 x 45 mms., pp. [iv], 155 [156 blank], uncut, engraved frontispiece, attractively bound by Zaehnsdorf (with his tiny gilt mark just barely visible in the lower gilt margin of the verso of the front board) in later full tan morocco, triple gilt borders on covers, spine ornately gilt in compartments, gilt dentelles, with title in gilt on spine, marbled end-papers, with the miniature bookplate of M. A. Elton on the front paste-down end-paper. A fine copy of this \"large-paper\" miniature. The typeface by Guiraudet and Jouaus is one of the smallest I've seen, at 2.5, Edwin Tross (1822–1875) was a French publisher, bookseller, and print dealer active in Paris, known for his work with the Librairie Tross publishing firm and for creating editions of various important texts, including works related to Rabelais. He is credited with publishing or reprinting works such as Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel and Histoire de la Nouvelle-France, often featuring scholarly introductions or based on earlier works. A 1876 auction catalogue lists a sale of his collection of old master prints after his death (AI). Doris V. Welsh, Bibliography of Miniature Books, no. 4976; Spielmann, P.E. Miniature books, no. 479. Elton, Mary Augusta Strachey, 1838-1914: A catalogue of a portion of the library of Charles Isaac Elton and Mary Augusta Elton. (London, Quaritch, 1891), also by Charles Isaac Elton.