Rococó: ut pictura poesis

Abstract

A new thematic and formal regime appears during the first half of the eighteenth century in Europe. As for the other arts, in the book edition the tendency towards the monumental, disappears in the early rococo, and makes room for delicate and small books. The change described here is quite profound, although it does not take the form of a seismic event. It is rather the net effect of a long process of thematic and formal drift and realignment, from the Acajou et Zirphile de Duclos to the Livre à la mode of Caraccioli, through the new editions of La Fontaine or Molière.