Le dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise

The widow Coignard, Anne-Geneviève Hénault, oversaw one of the most significant works on the French language: the first edition of the dictionary of the French Academy. She completed the publication after the death of her husband, Jean-Baptiste Coignard I. In 1694, the year in which the dictionary was published, the widow’s business comprised 5 working presses and 8 compagnons, or journeymen. Bound in the same matching set is another dictionary published by Hénault: the Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences of Thomas Corneille, himself a member of the Academy. The binding bears the armorial stamp of the La Rochefoucauld family.

Anne-Geneviève Hénault

ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE

1694

E693-4

Paris: chez la veuve de Jean-Baptiste
Coignard