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A scarce feminist pamphlet written at the height of the Revolution discussing women’s rights and the place of religious orders for women. Following the section title, a drop-head title on A1 supplies the questions addressed in this motion: ‘Le bonheur des hommes est-il dépendant de celui des femmes? Quels sont pour elles les moyens de l’établir? Les Couvents de Religieuses doivent-ils être supprimés?’. The author of this scarce pamphlet describes as a wife and mother of an unspecified number of sons (footnote to p. 4). She has been identified by Mouret as a Madame Bastille, ‘à qui nous devons la Bibliothèque des Romans’ (see Mme Mouret, Annales de l’Education, vol. II, pp. 35-36). A note before the colophon advertises the pamphlet as available for 6 sols ‘chez l’auteur rue des Poitevins, no. 20. The publisher’s details are given in the colophon.

A lovely, fresh copy of this antiquarian study of a newly discovered Bamberg incunable, Historie van Joseph, Daniel, Judith und Esther, 1462. An unsophisticated copy in original condition with wide margins and five wonderful plates.
Camus was an ardent revolutionary whose zeal for social and political reform was only matched by his enthusiasm for bibliography and literature. In 1789, he was appointed by the Estates General as archivist of the Commission des archives, from which role he founded the Archives Nationales which he presided over until his death. An indefatigable speaker in the National Assembly and one of its earliest presidents, his legal background gave an authority to his speeches and he was called on to speak more than any other elected member: he is said to have addressed the Assembly more than 600 times, over a hundred more than the next most frequent speaker. Extreme in his political opinions, he was heavily involved in the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, in cancelling payments of annates to the papacy and, in 1791, in abolishing titles of nobility. At the trial of Louis XVI, he voted for ‘death without appeal and without reprieve’.

A curious Ossian style production, with a Norwegian saga written in Italian terza rima and printed alongside the supposedly English prose original, ‘Almurka and Snivenus’. Set in early medieval Norway where the enlightened monarchs Alminda (the name has been changed to be more resonant with the Italian language) and Sniveno reign over a peaceful nation, though under the rule of Britain. One sorrowful day the King of Britain summons Sniveno, ‘come to the English court; an high reason of state requires it’ and despite the anguished entreaties of his wife, fearful of the raging seas, he submits to the order and embarks for Britain. A few days later, the vessel ‘was assailed in a dark night by a terrible storm. The ship was flinged up and down by the waves and beated at once by winds, hail, and rain. The thunder bursted in the darkness. The Master of the ship was appaled for the danger; the thunderbolt rending the clouds sended on the surge a flash of livid light. The sailors had lost their art and spirit. The vessel was plunged down almost topsyturvy and cryes and groans were heard. The whirlwind broke masts and sails; the surpassing and raged waves fluttered around the bodys of agonizing and dead men, and some of them not yet entirely drowned uttered in their throat with a dying groan the name of their fathers, children and wives’. The spirit of Snivenus assumes the form of the drowned king and returns in a dream to Almurka, who goes to the shore where she finds her husband’s corpse and promptly dies of grief. The Italian poem is clearly the original, but the florid English translation, so clearly non-native, is charming.
Alminda e Sniveno first appeared in Milan in 1818 and this second edition was first published in 1821. OCLC lists only the 1821 edition of Novella Romantica, at Bodleian and the BN. The Bodleian copy is catalogued as pp. [24], which brings the volume to the conclusion of ‘Alminda e Sniveno’, with a final Italian poem printed on the verso. In the present volume, the dates on the imprint have been altered to 1823 and a further eight pages have been added, comprising Italian poems on mainly historical themes. The second work in the volume, Pascoli’s Improvvisi, contains a selection of verse on various subjects; it was first published in 1812 (actually 1821) with slightly differing contents. The divisional title, ‘Rime Faceto-Morali’ has been stamped ‘Estemporanee’. The final work in the volume is a New Year’s poem for 1823. Although not recorded as by Pascoli, its inclusion in this volume and the similarity with his other publications, would suggest his authorship.

A scarce edition, in three parts, of five major works by the Italian physician, historian and biographer Paolo Giovio, including his account of Muscovy and his history of Britain.
The first part features the ‘Elogia doctorum virorum’ of 1546 - an encyclopaedia of early humanism celebrating with short biographies important scholars of the time including Trapetiuntius, Regiomontanus, Thomas Linacre, Copernicus, Machiavelli and Zwingli. The second includes his ‘Descriptiones Britanniae, Scotiae, Hyberniae & Orchadum’ of 1548, devoted to the history and ethnography of the British Isles, followed by ‘elogia’ of important British figures including Thomas More, chronological annals of the kingdom and a genealogical diagram of the kings of England. The third part begins with his influential account of Muscovy first published in 1525: a fundamental source for the knowledge of Russia in 16th-century Europe, with sections on its history, customs, religion and language. His first and less famous ‘De Romanis Piscibus libellus’ of 1524 is also included, an account of all the kinds of fish which could be caught in the River Tiber, as well as ‘Descriptio Larii Lacus’, a topographical account of Lake Como, near which Giovio lived.
In a fine contemporary binding, probably from southern Germany: the blind stamps of the Crucifixion, with the snake wrapped around the Cross and St Peter is typical of sixteenth century bindings from Bavaria and Saxony.

Two orations written in celebration of the elevation to the role of Doge of Venice by two Venetian dignitaries. This was an interesting time in the history of Venice, with the war against Austrian-funded pirates raging as well as the threat of Spanish invasion. The Doges being celebrated are Giovanni Bembo (1543-1618), who was elected the 92nd Doge on 2nd December 1615, and of Antonio Priuli (1548-1623), the 94th Doge, who was elevated in May 1618 and remained in office until his death. Vianello is described as the ambassador from Chioggia and Grigis, described as ‘il Morlacco’, dedicates his speech to Felice Nola, ‘canonico d’albe de Marsi’. This is a charming object, the Grigis oration embellished with hand-painted arms on the outer wrapper and both speeches preserved at some later date in a wallet-style vellum binding.

An early edition - for many years thought to be the first - of Diderot’s first original work, bound in nineteenth century morocco. An immediate furore followed its initial publication and it was condemned to be burnt by the Paris Parlement for its dangerous and anti-religious content: ‘the venom of the most criminal opinions that the depravity of human reason is capable of’. Diderot’s original manuscript had been purchased by the bookseller Durand and the first editions were printed in Paris at the clandestine press of l’Epine. It was to become one of Diderot’s most popular and controversial works, running to at least eighteen editions in the eighteenth century and prompting numerous refutations.
At this stage in his life, the young Diderot was a Deist and in the Pensées he sets out to demonstrate the existence of God through evidence of the material world. He attacks atheism in this work, but also criticises revealed religion and religious asceticism and challenges the existence of miracles. He writes eloquently of human passions and argues for the reconciliation of feeling with reason. The work is presented in the form of sixty-two short chapters, some of which are little more than maxims, brief and quotable in the manner of La Rochefoucauld, such as: ’A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it’; ‘One may demand of me that I should seek truth but not that I should find it’ and ‘Skepticism is the first step towards truth’. The work concludes with a final detailed index.
This is one of four editions that appeared in 1746, all with the imprint ‘A la Haye, aux dépens de la compagnie’. The present printing was long thought to be the first edition, partly on account of its errors in pagination, but Adams demonstrates that it is third in priority. Furthermore he concludes that the present edition was entirely reset, rather than as previously thought a few corrections being made to a number of pages. The printer’s ornament is the same as both previous editions, but the double rule in the imprint of this copy measures 50mm, rather than the 45mm as called for by Adams.
With an attractive engraved frontispiece in the manner of Eisen, in which the voluptuous figure of Truth standing on the right removes the mask from the foul looking figure of Superstition, who is lounging on the floor with a broken sceptre. In our copy the plate measures 98 x 57 mm.

A scarce book of considerable significance, this was the first work to introduce the ideas of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) to the French-speaking world. In the long preface, Villers discusses the impact of Kant’s works and their principal opposition, comparing him in importance with Descartes and Copernicus. ‘C’est en 1781 que parut le livre à jamais mémorable, Critique de la Raison Pur... une doctrine nouvelle [qui] ruinait toutes les métaphysiques qui l’avaient précédé... Ce livre renfermait la plus désolante et la plus irréfragable définition du mot savoir, chose que tant de savans ignorent’ (pp. xix-xx). Villers highlights Kant as one of two game-changing thinkers of the age, the other being Lavoisier: ‘La nouvelle chimie, la nouvelle philosophie, sont les deux tendances majeures de notre âge, les deux degrés scientifiques les plus remarquables qu’a monté notre génération’ (p. x).
Villers expresses his surprise that such a key thinker has remained unknown in France: ‘Depuis près de vingt ans, une nouvelle philosophie qui intéresse tout le savoir humaine... est encore inconnue aux Français, et il ne s’en est pas encore trouvé un seul qui ait entrepris de l’étudier et de la faire connaître à sa patrie... Mais il semble qu’il y ait une distance infranchissable de l’esprit français à l’esprit allemand; ils sont placés sur deux sommets entre lesquels il y a un abîme. C’est sur cet abîme que j’ai entrepris de jeter un pont’ (pp. lx-lxiv).
Villers studied at the Benedictine College in Metz and then went on to the School of Applied Artillery in the same town, where he developed an interest in animal magnetism. After the French revolution, he moved to Göttingen where he had an affair with the German intellectual Dorothea von Schlözer, subsequently moving in with her and her husband, Mattheus Rodde, where the three lived openly as a menage à trois. It was Villers’ French nationality that protected the household during the French occupation in 1806, a narrative that is described in his a letter written to Fanny de Beauharnais and published as Lettre contenant un récit des événements qui se sont passés à Lübeck le 6 novembre 1806, [sans lieu] 1807, a popular work which in later editions carried Fanny de Beauharnais’ name on the title-page.

A slim pocket volume containing a course of education prepared for the dauphin and originally published as a part of the Almanach Dauphin avec un plan d'un cours nouveau de littérature françoise, à l'usage de ce prince, 1784, by Poullin de Fleins, a Royal councillor who worked as an examiner of accounts. The Almanach Dauphin is very scarce, being known in a single copy at the BN, and we have not compared the texts, but it seems probable that this volume comprises the text removed from the almanac.
Poullin de Fleins’ curriculum is divided into the three sections: the first concerned with details that are common to all genres, equally prose and verse; the second section looking into details that distinguish poetry from oratory and other genres and the third section treating of each genre in a separate article. The first section is divided into ‘des figures, des pensées & des Images’ and it is recommended that the most time possible is spent on this section, because it is amusing, the pupil will not be required to concentrate too hard and the teacher will be able to supply a large variety of examples. The second part is divided into six lessons: what distinguishes Poetry from Eloquence; Expression, Style; Interest; Customs and Fables (the last two chapters are specified but have no content or advice). The shorter third part gives an introductory section on the different genres and has a dedicated section on Criticism. The volume concludes with ‘Hymnes de Callimaque’, comprising three extended prose accolades to Jupiter, Apollo and Delos.

A scholarly anthology of minor Greek poetry edited by the English physician Ralph Winterton and first published in Cambridge in 1635. The volume concludes with Winterton’s own substantial commentary on Hesiod. The selection, with a Latin translation printed in parallel text facing the Greek, was based on the earlier compilations of Henry Stephen, published in 1566 and of Jean Crispin, published in 1600. Winterton dedicated his work to Archbishop Laud, presumably out of personal gratitude for his part in helping Winterton to obtain his Cambridge degree. Some incident of unfitting conduct in December 1631, thought to have been a theological debate in hall, had set the authorities of Kings against him and a succession of pleas to grant him his degree had been refused. It was finally Archbishop Laud’s intervention in December 1633 that, within a fortnight, resulted in Winterton’s being granted his degree. Following this setback, Winterton’s Greek metrical version of the aphorisms of Hippocrates was published to such acclaim that he was appointed as regius professor of physic in 1635. His intention had been to extend the present volume but his diligence in fulfilling his professorial duties to the college prevented his doing so.
Winterton’s edition of the minor Greek poets was very popular, appearing in half a dozen editions into the next century. This is a delightful copy of a late seventeenth century edition, bound in contemporary full vellum with a distinctive armorial device - half man, half beast - gilt in the centre of both covers, within a gilt border. Holes in the boards suggest an earlier clasp or the use of ties. These are no longer present and the holes have been covered internally by pastedowns, probably in the eighteenth century. The volume was in the collection of the bibliophile Reinhold Dezeimeris (1835-1913), avid collector of Hesiod amongst other, particularly Greek, authors, and bears his pink Latin and Greek printed bookplate on the front pastedown.

An attractive copy of a scarce edition of this major political essay by Quevedo, first published in 1626. This edition is published by the same Confraternity of St. John the Evangelist who also published an edition of his works in the same year.
‘The treatise attempts to establish the theoretical groundwork for a governmental system based on Christian ideals. The best form of government, according to Quevedo, is a monarchy, one whose authority is absolute because it issues from divine will. The king should govern using Christ as his supreme model. Much attention is paid to the qualities required of the king’s counselors, they being probably as important as the king himself. Quevedo rejects tyrannicide as the solution for an evil monarch, choosing instead to present the latter as a form of divine punishment which must be suffered in silence. The work contains few truly original ideas, its significance stemming principally from the mastery of its style as well as the great popularity it achieved’ (Bleiberg, Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula, II, p. 1336).

The scarce first German edition of Helen Maria Williams’ most overtly political translation and her single most controversial work. The letters of Louis XVI were obtained in good faith by Williams, who hoped to use her translation and commentary for the transmission of her own revolutionary beliefs. The enterprise turned out to be a massive error of judgement on her part as the public reaction was overwhelmingly that of sympathy for the unjustly treated king, quite the opposite to the effect she had intended. Worse than this, however, was the public and official outcry that greeted its publication. Almost immediately people began to doubt the authenticity of the letters and Williams was subject to a barrage of humiliating attacks. The first blow was that the work was confiscated by the authorities for fear of its royalist sympathies and this was followed by endless attacks, most notably a full-length vitriolic tirade by Bertrand de Moleville, A Refutation of the Libel on the Memory of the late King of France, published by Helen Maria Williams under the title of Political and Confidential Correspondence of Louis XVI translated from the original manuscript by R. C. Dallas, London, 1804. Bertrand de Moleville was unrestrained in his criticism both of the present and other works and of Williams herself, whom he famously described as 'a woman whose lips and pen distil venom'.
After years of suspicion and controversy, it transpired that the letters were indeed forgeries. Williams had purchased them from François Babié de Bercenay and Sulpice Imbert, Comte de la Platière and had herself been convinced that they were genuine. In 1822, however, Babié de Bercenay revealed in a letter that he had written the letters at the suggestion of his friend Sulpice Imbert. Williams, the innocent translator, had unwittingly been implicated in a literary hoax. Such was the humiliation she suffered after the publication that Williams retired from literary life and very little is heard of her over the next ten years.
‘Were it not for Babié’s revelation in 1820, we may never have known the actual history of Williams’s set of the Louis XVI letters. With its historical (mis)representation deriving from a non-original (in a sense) original, does Williams’s text prove an ambiguous artefact? However, the work exists as a testament to the importance of her translational oeuvre in its position in the canon as a contribution to her revolutionary communication and, in a secondary sense, as an intriguing example of the pseudotranslational subgenre’ (Paul Hague, Helen Maria Williams: the purpose and practice of translation, 1789-1827, 2015, pp. 126).
The letters in the original were given in French and English, with Williams’ commentary given only in English. In this edition, the entire text is given only in German.

A delightful anonymous work in which narratives and philosophical digression are happily mixed. Consisting of a total of eight ‘Promenades’, each of which is loosely intended to elucidate one aspect of human passion. In the author’s brief introduction, he laments that the only explanation for the prevailing morality and behaviour is that men have become children. ‘La plûpart des hommes ont aujourd’hui abandonné les lectures sérieuses & instructives, parce que l’application qu’elles demandent, se trouve absolument incompatible, avec l’esprit de volupté qui les domine’ (Préface de l’Auteur, p. iii).
In the first Promenade, Monsieur de Clairenville meets a knight of Malta and falls into conversation with him. The knight tells him of his aventures, including the tragic story of the beautiful Sophie. The second Promenade, subtitled ‘Sur les Passions’, contains an essay on the education of youth and a tale about a young Paris lawyer. The third Promenade, ‘Sur l’Usage des Passions’, includes a prayer to Saint Christopher, a discussion of Jesuits and monks and a section on Reason. The fourth is ‘Sur l’Amour’, with reflections and a story of a young lady who could not cure herself of this malady. The fifth, ‘Sur la Colère’, gives the history of Leonore and Olympia. The sixth Promenade provides a discussion of Avarice, with a strange miscellany of reflections on France, trade in Mississippi and John Law, concluding with ‘Histoire curieuse d’un Avare, qui avoit beaucoup gagné au Mississipi’. Seven is Ambition, with the tale of a persecuted cleric and eight is Hatred, which begins with a conversation between Monsieur de Clairenville and a Carmelite, outlines the author’s general system for understanding this passion and concludes with the final story, ‘Histoire de la Comtesse de.... les excès où elle se porte pour satisfaire sa Haine contre son Mari’.
First published in 1723 (see Jones p. 35) under the slightly different title of Promenades de Mr. de Clairenville, and then republished in 1743 and the present edition under the present title. It was republished in the first volume of the Bibliothèque universelle des romans, April 1782. Despite its evident popularity, with three editions spanning a number of years, this unusual work is now very scarce.

An excellent copy of this charming poetical miscellany, known as the 'Recueil de Barbin' and first published in 1692. It contains the major poems of Ronsard, Villon, Marot, du Bellay and Baïf, as well as a host of minor poems by these and numerous less well-known authors. This expanded version (the original was in five volumes) is one of two printings of the collection in the eighteenth century, both published in 1752, reflecting an interesting resurgence in the study of early French poetry. The miscellany is arranged in six volumes, by author, with a brief biographical notice on each poet. The biographies are ascribed to Fr. Barbin, son of Claude Barbin, the great bookseller who first published the collection. This copy has a good provenance, coming from the de Guillebon family, with contemporary heraldic bookplates and a later booklabel of Madame Guillebon, the younger, circa 1800.

'Une anthologie de la poésie française faite par les classiques éveille l'intérêt; de plus elle a connu un grand succès... On ne saurait exagérer son influence' (p. 109, _Dictionnaire des Lettres Françaises, Fayard, 1996).

Gay III 978.

An important work, edited by Holbach, and first published in 1761, Boulanger's Recherches sur l'Origine du Despotisme Oriental was intended as an introduction and key to Montesquieu's Esprit des Loix. An important and widely-read treatise, it was incorporated in shortened form in the Encyclopédie, under the title 'Oeconomie politique'. It is offered here complete with the first edition of its companion volume, the so-called continuation by Boulanger, entitled Dissertation sur Elie et Enoch. The two volumes are uniformly bound and the second work comes complete with both the half-titles, the 'Dissertations' half-title and the additional half-title which links it to the Recherches, this latter being more often discarded. Included also in this volume (pp. 159-216) is Benjamin Stillingfleet's Traité Mathématique sur le Bonheur with an introductory letter by the translator, Etienne de Silhouette.

A fabulous copy of this scarce account of seventeenth-century French politics, extra-illustrated by Renouard and bound by Simier. Listed by Renouard under ‘Histoire’, the anonymous text is by Gatien Courtilz de Sandras, the popular novelist most remembered for his memoirs of d’Artagnan and his tales of adventure and derring-do under the administrations of Richelieu and Mazarin.
Antoine-August Renouard (1765-1853) was an industrialist and political activist who turned his attention to bibliography and bookselling after the Thermidore coup of 1794. An avid collector and bibliographer of Aldine and Estienne editions, Renouard swiftly gained a reputation for collecting fine books, both illustrated and handsomely bound. The present example, extra-illustrated and in a fine signed binding, is an excellent example of Renouard’s taste. Internally the work is a little browned and has seen some restoration but the twelve additional portraits are in good condition and the binding fresh.

A delightful volume of verse psalms and hymns printed in the small city of Crema, near to Milan. An elegant production, with wide margins, the text is followed by the musical score for each of the psalms and hymns, with music by the popular composers Giuseppe Gazzaniga (1743-1818), musical director of Crema Cathedral and Stefano Pavesi (1779-1850), another local Crema composer, mainly of operas. Tadini prefaces the volume with an essay on music and poetry (pp. 3-23), printed in two columns. Poet and musician, Luigi Tadini created a centre of the arts in his beautiful Palazzo Tadini in Lovere, on the shores of Lake Iseo. It still thrives today as the Accademia Tadini, with a music school and prestigious Tadini International Music Competition.

A lovely copy of this scarce novel by the Comte de Caylus, first published in 1742. An aristocratic dilettante, Caylus was a popular novelist and writer of short stories or contes badines - ranging from fairy tales to sentimental intrigue and oriental fables - which are always witty and usually slightly disreputable. Alongside this reflection of his place in the gayest circles of Paris society, Caylus was also a great collector of art and antiquities, a scholar and connoisseur, painter, etcher and patron of contemporary artists. His major work of scholarship, Recueil d’antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques, romaines et gauloises, is increasingly recognised for its significant importance in the development of modern archaeology.
Soirées du Bois de Boulogne is a loosely entwined collection of six short stories, or ‘soirées’, set in an apartment near the Bois de Boulogne where the hero, the comte de Trémaillé, has been sent to recover his health after an injury sustained at the Battle of Clausen. After happily spending a week there taking the air in the park and content with his books for company, early one morning he is surprised to see a carriage arriving at his door, with several ladies and a large entourage. Discussing their recent histories and swapping stories of unhappy liaisons, his companions, who include English visitors as well as French compatriots, decide to narrate to one another the stories of their lives. The names have of course, as the dedication makes clear, been changed.
The first story, which has for title ‘Histoire du Commandeur Hautpré’, begins with a summary of all the romantic novels he had been reading which had determined him to find his Angélique or his Clorinde. The second story is told by the young Englishwoman, Madame de Rockfields, who, after complaining about being forced to entertain them in a foreign language, insists that her story will have nothing about convents in it. ‘In France’, she says, ‘it is always about convents’. The Marquis de Montgeüil follows, and tells the audience of his going into Spain, ‘la Patrie du Roman’, narrating the ‘Histoire de l’Abbé de Longuerive’. The second volume begins with the fourth soirée, ‘Histoire du Comte de Prémaillé’ which tells of his love for the beautiful Constance and of her being sent to a convent. The fifth story gives the ‘Histoire du Comte de Crémailles’, including the correspondence between the unhappy fugitive, Mlle de Vauxfleurs, and an Abbess (more convents...). The final story is another English one, ‘Histoire de Mylord Wynghton’, a tragic tale which hurtles from the birth of the French court of the exiled James II and the birth of his son, the Old Pretender, to the political turbulence of the hero’s homeland - ‘L’Angleterre le pays du monde le plus fertile en Mécontens’ - where the hero and Dorothy fall in love but through a series of disasters and misunderstandings, mistaken identities, unforgiving parents, spells in Newgate and galleys bound for America, Dorothy takes her own life and dies in her lover’s arms in the final ‘sanglante Catastrope’.

A charming copy of this collection of erotic epigrams, engraved throughout in a delicate script and accompanied by a handsome frontispiece. This is the first of two companion volumes to the original La légende joyeuse, first published in 1749, with Seconde suite de la Légende Joyeuse following in 1751. The epigrams are by several authors, including Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Ferrand, Grécourt and Piron. Gay says of the style of poetry: ‘Pour citer une de ces petites pièces nous sommes bien embarrassé, car elles sont généralement fort libres’. In keeping with this, it is worth noting that the imprint gives the publisher as ‘Pyne’, a double reference to the French slang for penis and the English publisher John Pine, whose 1733 Horace remained one of the most famous fully-engraved books of the time.

An attractive, unsophisticated copy in contemporary decorative wrappers of this Prussian officer’s account of England and Italy. A professor of history with an interest in contemporary European politics, Archenholz wrote widely on current events. From 1791 he lived in France and ran a German language newspaper, Minerva, which reported the events of the French Revolution. His initial enthusiasm for the Revolution was challenged by its increasing violence and in 1792 the opinions expressed in his paper forced him to flee France in order to escape the guillotine.
The present work was originally published as England und Italien, Leipzig 1785. It was a very popular work which saw many editions and was translated into French and English. This is one of several editions of this French translation by the poet and dramatist, Ludwig von Bilderbeck. A two volume edition of the first part of the work only, that on England, was printed in Brussels by le Francq as Tableau de l’Angleterre, contenant des anecdotes curieuses et intéressantes, 1788. In the same year, there was a Gotha edition printed by Ettinger, including both parts on England and Italy and also a two volume Paris edition printed by Volland, including both English and Italian parts. Both parts were also translated into English, the first two volumes as A picture of England, containing a description of the laws, customs and manners of England, London 1789 and the final volume as A picture of Italy, London 1791.
‘La Grande-Bretagne, cette reine des îles, est si différente de tous les autres Etats de l’Europe, par la forme de son gouvernement, par ses loix, ses usages, ses mœurs et la manière d’agir et de penser de ses habitans, qu’elle parait plutôt appartenir à un autre globe qu’à celui où nous vivons. Le contraste est sur-tout frappant lorsqu’on passe de France en Angleterre. On se croit transporté dans une autre planète’ (I pp. 1-2).

A selection of light-hearted essays on a number of subjects including women, justice, monks, literature and fashion. The author, an obscure writer called Nolivos Saint-Cyr, was a captain in the infantry and a self-styled 'comédien', who sometimes signed himself 'Laval'. G. Monval published a biography of him in 1902, is entitled Un Comédien nomade, mort aux Invalides. His Tableau du Siècle is written in an easy, readable style and covers a range of entertaining and at times contentious subjects. One nice aspect of his style is the creation of characters to illustrate his points, so that instead of writing, for example, 'all women are dreadful', he writes 'all women are dreadful. Emilie was born into a rich family &c. &c.' and brings the particular vice or virtue to life with a little story.
'Si la religion est le prétexte de tout, les femmes en sont la veritable cause … On peut dire enfin, avec vérité, que si les femmes conduisent & reglent tout, elles travaillent à se render dignes d'être consultées. C'est, à les bien définir, un melange de légéreté, & de prudence; d'amour des plaisirs, & de respect pour la vertu; de bonté, & de vengeance; d'ambition & de générosité: En un mot, les femmes de notre siécle sont de véritables caméléons' (p. 31).