[HAUY (Valentin) ?] Le combat des Horaces et des Curiaces. S - Lot 197

[HAUY (Valentin) ?] Le combat des Horaces et des Curiaces. S.l., s.n., s.d. [circa 1810-1820] In-12, 30 pp. printed in relief on white paper. Bound in period full leather, smooth spine. Rare relief-printed edition, to be compared with works printed on the initiative of Valentin Hauy, who founded the Institution royale des jeunes aveugles in 1784 and invented this embossed printing system. "Sharing the great philanthropic enthusiasm of the 18th century for the underprivileged, and attempting to re-establish the equivalent of what Abbé de l'Épée, inventor of the manual alphabet, had achieved for the deaf and dumb, Valentin Haüy set himself the goal of getting the blind to read. So he invented typefaces similar to traditional ones, but which, embossed on thick paper, produced relief typography. This process was used to implement a real plan for the education and social reintegration of the blind, which he brought to the attention of the general public in his Essay on the Education of the Blind (1786). Haüy welcomed the young Louis Braille as a benevolent and self-confident master, unaware that forty years later the Braille alphabet would make him an outdated precursor. Be that as it may, it was through this process that Braille learned to read and quickly became a brilliant pupil" (En français dans le texte, no. 242). (numerous rubs and scratches to binding, heavy soiling, traces of wetness, large tear not missing from last leaf).