[Tiphaigne de la Roche (Charles François)] Giphantia:

or a View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, In the World
London, Robert Horsfield, 1761.

First edition in English. 2 vols. 8vo. Main title printed in red & black, part title with woodcut decoration. Uniformly bound by Glenn Malkin in modern speckled calf with geometric gilt design and blind-tooled roll & cogs decorations to covers, spines with raised bands and gilt rules with contrasting leather title labels. Housed in leather-backed marbled board compartmentalised slipcase.

A scarce imaginary voyage, considered to be one of the earliest works of utopian science fiction. This work is also considered a cornerstone book in any collection of photographic literature, and photography’s first fictional work (see Roosens & Salu History of Photography, No. 10421).

Originally published in France in 1760 as Giphantie (an anagram of the author’s name), this work is credited with one of the earliest mentions of photography, in Chapter 17: “That window, that vast horizon, those thick clouds, that raging sea, are all but a picture… Thou knowest that the ways of light, reflected from different bodies, make a picture and paint the bodies upon all polished surfaces, on the retina of the eye, for instance, on water, on glass. The elementary spirits have studied to fix these transient images; they have composed a most subtile matter, very viscous, and proper to harden and dry, by the help of which a picture is made in the twinkle of an eye… [the] impression of the images is made the first instant they are received on the canvas, which is immediately carried away into some dark place; an hour after, the subtile matter dries, and you have a picture so much the more valuable, as it cannot be imitated by art nor damaged by time” (pages 95-96).

Glenn Malkin began binding professionally in 2008 and has since won numerous awards for his design bindings in national and international competitions.