Bernard Picard / Pieter Tanjé

BERNARD PICARD (Paris, 1673 - Amsterdam, 1733). / PIETER TANJÉ (1706-1761) "Dutch religious and social ceremonies". Five 18th-century Dutch engravings. Text in French. Edited in Amsterdam by Jean Frédéric Bernard. Soiling, damp stains, cracks, creases and some tears. Reintegrations in the paper. They were part of the book "Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde", which appeared from 1723 to 1743. Size: 35.5 x 23 cm (largest) . Bernard Picard was a French engraver. His father Etienne Picart was also an engraver. He moved to Antwerp in 1696, and then spent a year in Amsterdam, before returning to France at the end of 1698. After his wife died in 1708, he moved to Amsterdam in 1711. Most of his work was illustrations of books, including the Bible and works by Ovid. His most famous work is Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, which appeared from 1723 to 1743 and was an immense effort to record the religious rituals and beliefs of the world in all their diversity, as objectively and authentically as possible. Pieter Tanjé was an 18th century Netherlandish engraver, born in Bolsward, working on the shipping service between Bolsward and Amsterdam, who engraved designs for snuff boxes in his spare time. He was so successful with his snuff boxes that Jacob Folkema encouraged him to enrol at the Amsterdam Stadsacademie, which he did at the age of 24 and became a pupil of Bernard Picart, Jacob Houbraken, Cornelis Troost and Jacob de Wit. He engraved over 100 plates for Johan van Gool's book of artist biographies called Nieuw Schouburg in 1750, working mainly from portrait sketches by Aart Schouman. Died in Amsterdam Jean-Frédéric Bernard (1683-1744) was a French publisher and writer. Born into a Huguenot family, he took refuge in Amsterdam because of the persecutions to which the Huguenots were subjected in France during the period in which Bernard lived.Jean - Frédéric Bernard's most famous work is probably the encyclopaedia of religions entitled Cérémonies et Coutumes Religieuses de tous les Peuples du Monde, created in collaboration with the engraver and designer Bernard Picart between 1723 and 1743. This work is considered "the book that changed Europe" by scholars Lynn Hunt, Margaret C. Jacob, and Wijnand Mijnhardt, according to whom Cérémonies is the first major comparative study of religions published on the Old Continent, making a significant contribution to religious tolerance, appearing on the cultural scene at a time of persecution and conflict between religious communities.