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  • COLLINS, Anthony (1676-1729).
    ROUSSET DE MISSY, Jean (1686-1762), joint translator.
    SCHEURLEER, Henri, joint translator.
    CROUSAZ, Jean-Pierre de (1663-1750).
    Discours sur la liberté de penser, par Mr. A. Collins. Traduit de l’Anglois & augmenté d’une Lettre d’un Médecin Arabe; avec l’Examen de ces deux Ouvrages par Mr. de Crouzas. Nouvelle Edition, corrigée. Tome Premier [-Second]. Londres, 1766.

    Second Edition; First Collected. Two volumes in one, 8vo, (155 x 90 mm), pp. xii, 256,157-168 (ie 268); viii, 211, B4 and B5 partly loose at the gutter, in contemporary calf, triple gilt filet on the covers, brown morocco labels on the spine lettered and numbered in gilt, flat spine gilt in herringbone pattern, marbled endpapers, red edges, from the library of Claude Lebédel.

    The second edition in French of A discourse of free-thinking, occasion’d by the rise and growth of a sect call’d Free-Thinkers, London 1713, by Anthony… (more)

    The second edition in French of A discourse of free-thinking, occasion’d by the rise and growth of a sect call’d Free-Thinkers, London 1713, by Anthony Collins, philosopher and thinker, friend and pupil of John Locke and one of the most influential deists of his time. This translation, by Rousset de Missy and Scheurleer, was first published in 1714 and includes the Lettre d’un médecin arabe à un fameux Professseur de l’Université de Hall en Saxe, sur les reproches à fait à Mahomet... traduit à l’arabe, 1713, appended to the 1714 edition printed in the Hague. Also included in this edition is the critical reaction to Collins’ work by Jean-Pierre de Crousaz, Examen du Traité de la liberté de penser, which was first published in Amsterdam in 1718.
    At the core of Collins’ argument is his defence of free-thinking as a natural right and a religious duty, for which he used as evidence the many disagreements between the clergy. It was largely this that laid him open to accusations of atheism and using freethinking as a platform for a dangerous self-serving and libertine agenda. The work was publicly burnt in England and provoked dozens of replies including those from Jonathan Swift, Benjamin Hoadly, George Berkeley and Richard Bentley. Collins was forced to leave England for the Netherlands until the controversy died down.

    See Cioranescu 57557 & 21911; Quérard II, 253.

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  • BOULAINVILLIERS, Henri, comte de (1658-1722).
    Mémoires presentés à Monseigneur le duc d’Orleans, Régent de France. Contenant les moyens de rendre ce Royaume très puissant, & d’augmenter considerablement les revenus du Roi & du Peuple. Par le C. de Boulainvilliers. Tome I [-II]. The Hague, aux dépens de la Compagnie, 1727.

    First Edition. Two volumes in one, 8vo, (152 x 88 mm), pp. [vi], 158; [vi], 5-230, [2] table and errata, title-page to the first volume printed in red and black, the second title-page printed in black only, in contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments, brown morocco label lettered in gilt, surface cracking to joints and extremities a little rubbed, plain endpapers, red edges, from the library of Claude Lebédel.

    An important economic treatise on the causes of financial distress in France, with suggested political and economic solutions. Boullainvilliers’ frank exposé of the last years… (more)

    An important economic treatise on the causes of financial distress in France, with suggested political and economic solutions. Boullainvilliers’ frank exposé of the last years of Louis XIV’s reign was rather too much for the authorities, who had it condemned on publication. His political writings - ‘original to the point of eccentricity’, says Christopher Betts in the New Oxford Companion to Literature in French - were hostile to royal policy and express an extreme version of feudalism, ‘le chef d’œuvre de l’esprit humain’, in which power is returned from the king to the nobles. An expansion of the economic sections of his more famous État de la France, the present work is dedicated to the duc d’Orléans. In common with all Boulainvilliers’ works, the present memoir was published posthumously and outside France.
    Boulainvilliers presents his argument in six parts or memoirs, the most striking of which is the second, that comes down heavily against the financiers and proposes a separate office for the state treasure, the third memoir, which attacks arbitrary taxation and the sixth, particularly resonant, which attacks poor financial administration. Boulainvilliers may have been an eccentric, but many of his economic theories were well ahead of his time and anticipated the ideas of the physiocrats, by whom he was much admired.
    ‘Some scholars happily ascribe all six memoranda under consideration to Boulainvilliers in order (it appears) to enhance his reputation - for once an attractive reputation - as an aristocratic liberal or progressive reformer of the 18th century. In fact, one may exclude from the Boulainvilliers corpus two or even three of the six memoranda under consideration. In keeping with Boulainvilliers' character, the author of memorandum 1 claims no expertise in fiscal matters, recommends instead that some faithful, enlightened, and wise persons screen any financial advice or projects submitted to the regent, and urges him above all to assemble the Estates. Equally consonant with Boullainvilliers' character is memorandum 4’ (H. A. Ellis, S. 244f).

    Cioranescu 13383; Einaudi 656; INED 714.

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  • MABLY, Gabriel Bonnot de, abbé de (1709-1785).
    Des Principes des Négociations, pour servir d’Introduction au droit public de l’Europe, fondé sur les traités. Par M. l’Abbé de Mably. ‘A La Haye’, ie Paris, 1757.

    First Edition. 12mo, (163 x 92 mm) pp. viii, 278, initial blank removed, in contemporary mottled calf, extremities a little worn, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, red edges, from the library of Claude Lebédel.

    An important work by the celebrated economist, intended as an introduction to a much earlier work, his Droit publique de l’Europe which was published in… (more)

    An important work by the celebrated economist, intended as an introduction to a much earlier work, his Droit publique de l’Europe which was published in 1746. ‘His Principes des negociations... was a courageous attack on the foreign policies of the European powers, and a plea for more rational and honest methods, not only for the sake of justice and humanity, but because they are actually profitable’ (Whitfield, Ernest, Gabriel Bonnot De Mably, New York, 1969). In this work he discusses the principles of international trade, modern warfare and the role of ambassadors and diplomacy. Chapter XVII, ‘Des traités de commerce. Digression sur le luxe’, contains a discussion of the theories of David Hume.
    An enormously popular writer in his day, Mably is now hailed variously as communist, republican and utopian. ‘Here also is the beginning of the French School of Utopian Communism properly so called’, says George Catlin, emphasising the importance of Mably’s exposition of the doctrine of equality (see George Catlin, A History of Political Philosophers, London, 1950), while Johnson Wright stakes out new ground for Mably as a republican: ‘Mably should be seen as neither a proto-socialist nor a reactionary thinker, but as a republican - a classical republican, in fact, whose writing represents a later Gallic contribution to the political tradition founded by Machiavelli and Harrington. He is not only interesting as the personification of the revolutionary spirit and as a level-headed reformer, but because he formulated principles which have since been either accepted or re-discovered’ (Wright, History of Political Thought, Volume 13, Number 3, 1992, pp. 391-415).

    Cioranescu 41170; Tchemerzine VII, 265.

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  • VILLERS, Charles de (1765-1815).
    Philosophie de Kant. Ou Principes Fondamentaux de la Philosophie Transcendentale. Par Charles Villiers, de la Société royale des sciences de Gottingue. Première [-Seconde] Partie. Metz, Collignon, 1801.

    First Edition. 8vo, (180 x 115 mm), pp. lxviii, 249, [1], [2], 251-441, lacking the final endpapers, small stain to the upper margin of the preliminary leaves, marginal paper repair to title-page, in contemporary tree calf, rather worn, corners bumped, front joint cracking, flat spine gilt in compartments with black morocco label lettered in gilt, paper label largely removed, marbled endpapers, red edges, from the library of Claude Lebédel.

    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… (more)

    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.

    OCLC lists the National Library of Spain only.

    Cioranescu 63496.

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  • RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, Nicolas-Edme. (1734-1866), attributed to.
    Tableaux de la Bonne Compagnie de Versailles et de Paris; ou Traits caractéristiques, Anecdotes secretes, Politiques, Morales & Littéraires, recueillies dans les Sociétés du bon ton, pendant les Années 1786 & 1787. Par M. le Ch. de B***. Tome Premier [-Second]. Paris, tous les Marchands de Nouveautés, 1787.

    Third Edition. 8vo, (197 x 112 mm), pp. [ii], [3]-198; [ii], [3]-176, tear on E2 (pp. 67-8) through the page number but with no loss, in contemporary mottled calf, rubbed at extremities, spine gilt in compartments, brown morocco label lettered in gilt, head and foot of spine chipped, marbled endpapers, red edges.

    A delightful and vivid portrayal of the salons and artistic haunts of Paris society. Presented in a series of short chapters, with plentiful dialogue, short… (more)

    A delightful and vivid portrayal of the salons and artistic haunts of Paris society. Presented in a series of short chapters, with plentiful dialogue, short anecdotes and lively descriptions, the subjects covered include a music lesson, a scene in a café, an evening at the Tuilleries, the opera, a ball, a visit to the doctor, a supper party, dreams, rebels, springtime and ‘the real pleasures’ of life. The dedication is addressed ‘O Vous, Sexe charmant, qui savez tout embellier, malheureusement même jusqu’au vice... Les femmes sont chez nous les véritables précepteurs des hommes: elles aiment les sciences, les arts, les talens & les encouragent; elles veulent les trouver dans le cercle qui les entoure’.
    Authorship of this work has been hotly contested over the years. Paul Lacroix, in his bibliography of Restif, not only attributed the work to Restif, but claimed it to be among his best writings: ‘Ce sont les plus agréables pages que Restif ait écrites, et tout ce que nous avons lu dans ce joli ouvrage est bien du Restif, de l’excellent Restif’ (Lacroix p. 334). Rives Child, on the other hand, states that the Tableaux are the work of the Prince de Ligne and adds, ‘Je ne vois absolument rien de Restif là-dedans. A mon avis, cet ouvrage fut écrit par quelqu’un qui a passé pas mal de temps au Pays-Bas, peut-être un diplomate français’ (Rives Child, Restif de la Bretonne, Témoignages et Jugements. Bibliographie, 1949, p. 312). In Cohen-de Ricci it is listed under Restif but with the proviso that all the chapters were not written by Restif. It has more recently been attributed to Stanislas Jean de Boufflers.
    First published earlier in the same year, the work was originally intended to accompany a suite of plates by Moreau. These were reused in a number of later editions but were not included in the present edition, which has been entirely reset and which, unlike other editions, has no mention of plates on the title-page. The chapters of later editions also vary, but in this edition they are the same as listed by Lacroix for the first edition and all appear in the same order.

    MMF 87:19; Jacob, Bibliographie et Iconographie de tous les ouvrages de Restif de la Bretonne, pp. 333-334; see Cohen-de Ricci 879 (under Restif).

    OCLC lists this edition at the BN and Biblioteca Nacional de Espana.

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  • MOUHY, Charles de Fieux, Chevalier de (1701-1784).
    La Paysanne Parvenue, ou les Mémoires de Madame la Marquise de L.V. Par M. le Chevalier de Mouhy. Tome Premier [-Quatriéme]. Amsterdam, aux dépens de la Compagnie, 1757.

    Four volumes (twelve parts) in two, 12mo, (160 x 95 mm), pp. [ii], 8, 240; [ii], 3-4, 206; [ii], 222; [ii], 260, title pages printed in red and black, considerable dampstaining in text, in contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments with red morocco labels lettered in gilt and brown labels numbered in gilt, marbled endpapers, extremities bumped, wormholes on the front board of the second volume, from the library of Claude Lebédel.

    A scarce edition of Mouhy’s popular novel, first published in 1735. Written in conscious imitation of Marivaux’ Paysan Parvenu, 1735-1736, Mouhy rushed his own novel… (more)

    A scarce edition of Mouhy’s popular novel, first published in 1735. Written in conscious imitation of Marivaux’ Paysan Parvenu, 1735-1736, Mouhy rushed his own novel out, launching the first volumes on the market as early as July 1735, with the other volumes following in quick succession. Mouhy’s novel enjoyed considerable popularity and was republished for many years. It saw two English translations, an anonymous version, The fortunate country maid. Being the entertaining memoirs of the present celebrated Marchioness of L.V. Who from a Cottage, through a great Variety of Diverting Adventures, became a Lady of the first Quality in the Court of France, by her steady Adherence to the Principles of Virtue and Honour. Wherein are display’d The Various and Vile Artifices employ’d by Men of Intrigue, for seducing of Young Women; with suitable Reflections..... From the French of the Chevalier de Mouhy, London 1740, which was hugely popular with editions published throughout the second half of the century and Eliza Haywood’s less successful translation, The virtuous villager, or virgin’s victory being the memoirs of a very great lady at the court of France, written by herself, London, printed for Eliza Haywood, 1742.

    Martin, Mylne & Frautschi, Bibliographie du genre romanesque français 1751-1800, 57.R38; see also Jones p. 56; Cioranescu 47515 (7 parts) and 47516 (Amsterdam, 12 parts).

    OCLC lists the BN and two copies in Slovenia.

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  • Histoire des Sevarambes, by VAIRASSE (or Veiras d’Allais), Denis (circa 1630-1696).
    VAIRASSE (or Veiras d’Allais), Denis (circa 1630-1696).
    Histoire des Sevarambes, Peuples qui habitent une Partie du troisiéme Continent, communément apellé La Terre Australe. Contenant une Relation du Gouvernement, des Mœurs, de la Religion, & du Langage de cette Nation, inconnuë jusqu’à present aux Peuples de l’Europe. Tome Premier [-Second]. Nouvelle Edition, corrigée & augmentée. Amsterdam, Pierre Mortier, 1715.

    New Edition, Corrected and Enlarged. Two volumes in one, 12mo, (156 x 84mm), pp. xviii, 273; [ii], 247, title page to the first volume laid down, early tears and weakness still visible, outer edges of I, xviii and II, 21 & 23 reinforced, in contemporary green morocco, spine faded, gilt in compartments with red morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers and edges.

    A handsome copy of this important early utopia set in Australia, said to be the most complex and accomplished of all fictional utopias. Denis de… (more)

    A handsome copy of this important early utopia set in Australia, said to be the most complex and accomplished of all fictional utopias. Denis de Vairasse was a French Huguenot living in London which explains why the first part of the work saw publication in an English translation by A. Roberts, The history of the Sevarites or Sevarambi: a nation inhabiting part of the third continent, commonly called, Terræ australes incognitæ, London, 1675, prior to its first appearance in French. This followed some two years later, when a rather spicier second part was added (for the French market) and it was published in four volumes by Barbin in Paris, 1677-1679. All early editions are scarce.
    ‘Denis Veiras, ou Vairasse, obscur soldat et avocat sans causes qui s’autoproclame, sous l’anagramme de Sévarias, législateur génial et fondateur d’utopie. L’Histoire des Sévarambes et la plus achevée des utopies romanesques. C’est le paradigme de “l’utopie narrative”, selon l’expression de Jean-Michel Racaut, dans un habile équilibre entre la statistique fictive et le voyage imaginaire. Des cinq parties de l’ouvrage, la première raconte une aventure maritime avec naufrage dans les terres australes et robinsonnade, la seconde l’habituel épisode du tourisme utopique et l’installation de Siden (anagramme de Denis) et de ses compagnons chez les Sévarambes pour une quinzaine d’années; les trois dernières sont consacrées à l’histoire et aux moeurs des Sévarambes’ (Utopie, la quête de la société idéale en Occident, p. 179).

    OCLC lists Glasgow, three copies in Paris and UCLA, Delaware, Michigan and Ohio State.

    See Hartig pp. 34 -35 (not listing this edition).

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  • Brantôme’s women
    BRANTOME, Pierre de Bourdeille, seigneur de (1540-1614).
    Mémoires de Messire Pierre de Bourdeille, Seigneur de Brantome, contenans les Vies des Dames Illustres de France de son temps. Leiden, Jean Sambix, 1665.

    First Edition. 12mo, (127 x 75mm), pp. [vi], [ii] blank, 407, [1]; small marginal tear on p. 363, just touching the text but with no loss, in contemporary vellum, sturdy but a little spotted and browned, slightly spine lettered in ink.

    The first and most famous of Brantôme’s Mémoires, this volume includes the outspoken Vies des Dames Illustres. Written after his retirement from public life in… (more)

    The first and most famous of Brantôme’s Mémoires, this volume includes the outspoken Vies des Dames Illustres. Written after his retirement from public life in 1589, Brantôme had left instructions that his Mémoires should be published, but it was not until 1665 that this first volume appeared. Written in a frank, conversational manner, Brantôme describes his years at the centre of the glittering court and gives detailed and highly personal accounts of his contemporaries. His accounts give a highly colourful picture of court life and his descriptions of the sex lives of the ladies of the court are striking because of his ability to present graphic detail in a straightforward and almost bland style, as if he were talking about the weather.

    OCLC lists BN, Sainte-Geneviève, Oxford, Cambridge, Aberdeen, Harvard, Princeton, Suny, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Penn and James Munroe Museum.

    Tchemerzine, II, pp. 110-111.

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  • HAGEDORN, Christian Ludwig von (1712-1780).
    JANNECK, Franz Christoph (1703-1761).
    Lettre à un Amateur de la Peinture avec des Eclaircissemens Historiques sur un Cabinet et les Auteurs des Tableaux qui le composent. Ouvrage entremêlé de Digressions sur la vie des plusieurs Peintres modernes. Dresden, George Conrad Walther, 1755.

    First Edition. 8vo (188 x 120 mm), pp. [iv], 368, [14], the preliminary leaves including the frontispiece illustration, text fairly heavily browned, uncut throughout, in the original drab boards, spine lettered in ink.

    An attractive, unsophisticated copy of the first edition of ‘Lettre à un Amateur de la Peinture’ by Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, one of the most… (more)

    An attractive, unsophisticated copy of the first edition of ‘Lettre à un Amateur de la Peinture’ by Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, one of the most important art historiographers of the Enlightenment. A diplomat and director of the royal picture collection in Dresden, Hagedorn also assembled a significant collection of paintings, which are described and offered for sale in this work. Hagedorn’s ‘Lettre’, which occupies the first twenty pages, is followed by ‘Eclaircissemens historiques’, by Franz Christoph Janneck, the Austrian painter known for his paintings of festive gatherings who was much admired by Hagedorn. Janneck provides a description of the works in Hagedorn’s private collection, along with a series of biographical sketches and anecdotal digressions about various other painters. Janneck provides a wealth of information about both greater and lesser artists: the index designates those painters represented in the collection as well as other artists discussed in the digressions. Those painters thought to feature for the first time in a volume about painting are marked with an asterisk.
    The frontispiece is an etching by Pierre-Jules Hutin (ca. 1720-1763), notable for its inclusion of a female figure engaged in aesthetic debate. The engraving depicts an artist’s studio with two groups of figures deep in discussion. In the foreground is a painting of Leda and the Swan with three figures clustered around it. Standing immediately next to the painting is a woman intently discussing the painting with two male connoisseurs. The more elegant of the men is seated, the other man holds up a glass to the painting and the woman is holding either a pointer or a paint brush.

    Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’antichità posseduti dal Conte Cicognara, Bologna 19798, no. 1162.

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  • MAYER, Charles Joseph de (1751-?).
    Lisvart de Grèce, Roman de Chevalerie; ou Suite d’Amadis de Gaule. Par M. de Mayer. Tome Premier [-Cinquième]. Amsterdam, 1788.

    First Edition. Five volumes, 12mo, (139 x 78mm), pp. [iv], xii, 298, with four leaves of engraved music; [iv], 334, with one leaf of engraved music; [iv], 314, with three leaves of engraved music; [iv], 309, with two leaves of engraved music; [iv], 330, with two leaves of engraved music (a total of 12 leaves of engraved music), in contemporary pale mottled calf, the boards coloured with a red pigment leaving the spines pale but speckled (I don’t think they are just faded), green morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, flat spines gilt in compartments, simple tooled border to covers, dark blue endpapers, gilt edges.

    An attractive set of a scarce chivalric romance by Charles Joseph de Mayer, mostly remembered for his impressive Cabinet des fées, a forty-one volume collection… (more)

    An attractive set of a scarce chivalric romance by Charles Joseph de Mayer, mostly remembered for his impressive Cabinet des fées, a forty-one volume collection of fairy tales published between 1785 and 1789. The present novel, intended as a continuation of Tressan’s version of Amadis de Gaul, published in 1779, follows the adventures of Lisvart, the son of the Emperor of Constantinople. In keeping with Mayer’s interest in the fairy tale, Lisvart de Grèce includes plenty of fantastical sequences alongside the chivalric. In a fascinating introduction, in which Mayer talks of his involvement with Tressan in the Bibliothèque universelle des romans and discusses the state of French literature, he advises readers to start by reading Tressan’s work before moving on to his continuation, to save confusion between the different characters and generations. He suggests that this is a good time to publish the romances of chivalry, to restore a little French colour into a literature that has of late been besieged by translations from the English and the German. Following the lead of Tressan, Mayer has also attempted to update the genre to make it more accessible to a contemporary audience.
    ‘J’ai cru devoir imiter le Comte de Tressan... supprimer, ajouter, créer, polir, substituer, arrondir, & rapprocher un peu de nos tems & de nos mœurs la scene ancienne & le vieux théâtre; briser enfin le verre d’un tableau de lanterne magique, pour faire des tableaux vrais & les portraits ressemblans... Je devrois peut-être faire observer que le moment de mettre en lumière les Romans de Chevalerie est plus favorable qu’on ne feroit tenté de le croire. Depuis quelques années, la France ne reçoit & ne lit que des traductions de Romans Anglois, & des fictions prises dans les Auteurs Allemands: il me semble que toutes nos couleurs soient épuisées... il paroît même que les teintes légeres réussiroient; car nos passions paroissent entierement purgées de cette maniere noire qui a marqué nos Romans’ (pp. vi-x).
    The novel is accompanied by a sequence of twelve songs, which accompany the text on engraved plates in which both words and musical score are given. These are composed by Pierre-Jean Porro (1750-1831), the influential composer and guitarist. Following the novel are two short stories by Mayer, Amours de Guillaume de St.- Vallier, Troubadour, (V, 255-294) and Amours de Jeanne, Reine de Jérusalem, de Naples, de Sicile, Comtesse de Provence; Roman Historique, (V, 295-330).

    OCLC lists DLC and Cleveland Public Library only.

    Cioranescu 44113; MMF 88:91.

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  • with the important catalogue of books published by Bauche
    ESTEVE, Pierre (1720-1790).
    L’Esprit des Beaux Arts. Tome Premier [-Second]. Paris, Bauche, 1753.

    First Edition. Two volumes in one, 12mo, (165 x 88mm), pp. [iv], 252, [3] contents and errata; [iv], 231, [3] contents and errata, [5] privilege, 17 publisher’s catalogue, engraved vignettes on both title pages, with the half titles, in contemporary calf, a little dusty and worn, headcap missing, spine gilt in compartments with dark morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, red edges.

    First edition of a wide-ranging study of the arts by Pierre Estève, a medical doctor attached to the University of Montpellier and the author of… (more)

    First edition of a wide-ranging study of the arts by Pierre Estève, a medical doctor attached to the University of Montpellier and the author of numerous works on astronomy, music, language and aesthetics. Beginning with an examination of the nature of language, and the French language in particular, Estève proceeds to a detailed discussion of music, touching on its history, comparing ancient and modern taste in music and discussing the principles of melody, recitative and French opera, as well as dance and ballet. A final part is devoted to architecture, with specific reference to theatre architecture.
    Bound after the work is Bauche’s extensive publisher’s catalogue, which lists some three hundred titles in the fields of philosophy, literature and science. This catalogue is of particular importance as many of Bauche’s publications were controversial and did not bear his name in the imprint. For example it was Bauche who published Diderot’s Lettre sur les Sourds et Muets, 1741, which was published with simply the date as imprint, but is openly listed here.
    With attractive engraved vignettes on both title-pages, by Pierre-Alexandre Aveline (1710-1760). The first of these, which is unsigned, bears the inscription, ‘le plaisir des beaux Arts, est le plaisir des Sages’.

    Cioranescu 27897; Cohen-de Ricci 363.

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  • first book by ‘that swine of a Restif’
    La Famille Vertueuse. by RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, Nicolas-Edme. (1734-1866).
    RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE, Nicolas-Edme. (1734-1866).
    La Famille Vertueuse. Lettres traduites de l’Anglais. Par M. de la Bretone. Première [-Quatrième] Partie. Paris, la veuve Duchesne, 1767.

    First Edition. Four volumes, 12mo in eights and fours, (162 x 90mm), pp. xxxvi, 251; [iv], [5]-288 (A7 and D1-4 misbound); [iv], [5]-300; [iv], [5]-299, [13] table, the title pages within the usual ornamental borders, tear III 109-112, touching text but with no loss, repaired, in contemporary sheep-backed green boards, brown and black morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, simply gilt rules to the foot of the spines, red edges.

    The first edition of Restif’s first published work, an epistolary novel in four volumes. It is not a translation from the English, as claimed on… (more)

    The first edition of Restif’s first published work, an epistolary novel in four volumes. It is not a translation from the English, as claimed on the title-page in fashionable style, but is an original work about an aristocratic family and their adventures in France and England. It is printed by Quilleau, for whom Restif worked as a proof-reader and compositor, and is the first of several novels that Restif managed to get printed during his time there. It made him a profit of 765 livres and it was on the strength of this that he left the printing house and started writing professionally.
    The Epître (pp. v-xiv) is addressed ‘Aus [sic] Jeunes Beautés’ and is followed by a prefatory ‘Lettre de Mistress Eleanor à Miss Bridget’ (xv-xxxvi) in which Eleanor explains how she came by the letters. Travelling between Kent and Hampton Court, her father was set upon by some vagabonds and would have perished but for the intervention of Lord B*. As usually follows in these situations, Eleanor’s simple delight at her father’s safety delighted Lord B* who suggests that she become a companion for his daughter, Miss Cecily. Cecily is a descendant of the comte de Lisse, one of the main protagonists in the unhappy story that follows and Cecily, enraptured by her new friend, gives her all the letters with a view to her arranging and publishing them.
    The title pages are set within the typical Restif ornamental printed borders. Rives Childs (197-198) states that 2000 copies were printed - an impressive number for a first work and a sure sign of Restif’s involvement in the printing process - nonetheless the novel is now hard to come by and is comparatively scarce.

    OCLC lists Lyon, BL, Cambridge, Leeds; McGill, Bancroft, Chicago, Harvard, Walters Art Museum, Princeton and Yale.

    Cioranescu 52652; MMF 67.43; Gay II 231-232; Rives Childs 197-198.

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  • BERNARD, Jean-Frédéric (1690-1752).
    MIRABAUD, Jean-Baptiste de (1675-1760).
    LE MASCRIER, Jean-Baptiste (1697-1760).
    Le monde, son Origine, et son Antiquité. [-De l’Ame et de son Immortalité - Essai sur la Chronologie.] Première [Seconde] Partie. Londres, 1751.

    First Edition. Three parts in one volume, 12mo, (168 x 100mm), pp. xii, 244; [iv], 172; 72, some leaves in the final part dust-soiled along the lower edge, prior to binding, in contemporary polished calf, triple filet to covers, flat spine continuously gilt with brown morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, gilt edges, with the decorative engraved bookplate of the ‘Bibliothèque de Henri Tardivi’.

    A handsome copy of this scarce materialist diatribe in three parts by three different authors. The first part, Le Monde, son Origine et son Antiquité… (more)

    A handsome copy of this scarce materialist diatribe in three parts by three different authors. The first part, Le Monde, son Origine et son Antiquité is by Jean-Frédéric Bernard, an exiled French Protestant who set up as an editor and bookseller in the Netherlands, where he published a number of books on different subjects. The second part, which has its own separate title page, is in two sections, firstly De L’Ame, et de son Immortalité, also dated Londres, 1751, which is by Jean-Baptiste de Mirabaud. Concluding the volume is Essai sur la Chronologie by Jean-Baptiste Le Mascrier, which has its own register and drop-head title.
    ‘L’entreprise de Mirabaud parait d’une cohérence exemplaire, par sa méthode et par la fin systématique qu’elle poursuit. Elle résume un aspect essentiel de la pensée matérialiste du début du XVIIIème siècle’ (Olivier Bloch, Le Matérialisme du XVIIIème siècle et la littérature clandestine, p. 98).

    Darnton, The Corpus of Clandestine Literature in France 1769-1789, no. 452; Cioranescu 11384 & 45100-45101 & 39047-39048.

    ESTC n30361, well held in France and the UK; California State, Wisconsin-Madison, DLC, UCLA, Chicago and North Carolina in America. OCLC adds Princeton and Stanford.

    View basket More details Price: £800.00
  • CARTAUD DE LA VILATE, François (c. 1700-1737).
    Essai historique et philosophique sur le Goût. Par M. Cartaud de la Vilate. Londres, 1751.

    12mo, (162 x 90mm), pp. [viii], 327, with the half-title, in contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with sun-burst tooling, yellow morocco label lettered in gilt, a few small surface abrasions, red edges, marbled endpapers.

    An attractive copy of this scarce essay on aesthetics by the philosopher-priest, Cartaud de la Vilate. In his Pensées critiques sur les mathématiques, 1733, he… (more)

    An attractive copy of this scarce essay on aesthetics by the philosopher-priest, Cartaud de la Vilate. In his Pensées critiques sur les mathématiques, 1733, he calls into question the certainties of mathematics and debates its usefulness. His Essai historique et philosophique sur le Goût, which first appeared in an Amsterdam edition of 1736, attracted considerable attention and was several times reprinted, as late as 1970 when Slatkine reprinted it. Grimm said of it: ‘L’auteur est dans un délire continuel. Son style est vif, rapide... marche au hasard’ (DLF, p. 272).
    ‘L’on peut aisément juger par la façon don [sic] ce livre est écrit, que je l’ai destiné à ces lecteurs distraits & peu sérieux, qui aiment à voltiger sur divers sujets sans trop les approfondir. Le mérite d’amuser cette partie du public, m’a paru de quelque importance. J’ai employé un style propre à ce dessein, où il s’agit de faire éfleurer la littérature à des gens qui n’ont gueres que de l’imagination, & qui l’ont vive’ (Preface).
    The work is divided into two parts: the first, which takes up the larger part of the work, is ‘Essais historiques & philosophiques sur le Goût’. The second part is wider-ranging and includes shorter essays, such as ‘Le Goût est-il arbitraire?’, ‘Des fondemens de l’harmonie’, ‘En quoi consiste le géométrique de l’harmonie’ and ‘L’ignorance est-elle plus avantageuse à la politique des princes, que l’étude des lettres?’.

    ESTC t101745, at BL, Cambridge, Taylorian; Getty, NYPL, Illinois, Toronto and Yale. OCLC adds Cincinnati.

    See Cioranescu 15737.

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  • ‘not a Gesner or a Klopstock’
    BEUVIUS, Adam.
    Henriette de Gerstenfeld, ou Lettres écrites pendant la dernière guerre de 1779, pour la Succession de la Baviere, &c. En 3 vol. 8°. ornés de figures en taille-douces. Tome Premier [-Troisième]. Geneva, Nouffer de Rodon, 1782.

    First Edition in French. Three parts in one volume, 12mo, (163 x 95mm), pp. [ii], iv, 174; [ii], 232; [ii], 152, eight engraved plates in the text, considerable browning in the first and last sections, some insignificant tears to text, wanting the front free endpaper, in contemporary calf backed boards, rubbed but sound, spine ruled in gilt with orange label lettered in gilt.

    A scarce translation of this German sentimental novel set in wartime, attributed to the German writer Adam Beuvius. Originally published as Henriette oder der Husarenraub,… (more)

    A scarce translation of this German sentimental novel set in wartime, attributed to the German writer Adam Beuvius. Originally published as Henriette oder der Husarenraub, in Briefen bey Gelegenheit des gegenwärtigen Krieges, Berlin and Leipzig, 1779. It has also been attributed to Christopher Martin Wieland (1733-1813). An English translation of the first volume appeared in Dublin in 1786, with the attribution to Wieland on the title page: Henrietta of Gerstenfeld. Translated from the German of Mr. Wieland, Dublin, H. Chamberlain for the Translator, 1786. The Wieland attribution was dropped when the second volume, which was printed by William Lane at the Minerva Press, followed in 1788: Henrietta of Gerstenfeld; a German Story.
    Andrew Becket evidently expected something more from a German novel: ‘on the score of morality it is truly excellent. -But it is greatly wanting in those delicate and pathetic touches, which so particularly distinguish the writings of a Gesner, and a Klopstock...’ (Monthly Review, quoted in GRS, I, 377).

    OCLC listst BN, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, St. Gallen and Chicago only.

    MMF 82.15; see also Garside, Raven and Schöwerling 1786:17.

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  • Lettres Persanes, by MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat, baron de (1689-1755).
    MONTESQUIEU, Charles de Secondat, baron de (1689-1755).
    Lettres Persanes, Nouvelle Edition Augmentée d’un Sommaire à chaque Lettre & d’une Table. Tome Premier [-Second.] Cologne, Pierre Marteau, 1752.

    New Edition. Two volumes in one, 12mo, (158 x 90mm), pp. [iv], 214, [9]; [iv], 238, [9], with a final table of contents to each part, title-pages in red and black, with charming vignettes, in contemporary quarter calf over yellow boards, slightly scuffed, spine brightly gilt in compartments with red and green morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, red edges, green silk marker.

    An attractive copy of one of the dozens of reprints of Montesquieu’s seminal work, published under the same fictional Cologne imprint as the first edition… (more)

    An attractive copy of one of the dozens of reprints of Montesquieu’s seminal work, published under the same fictional Cologne imprint as the first edition of 1721. This edition includes the full 150 letters, as in the original printing, rather than the 140 included in Montesquieu’s expurgated version. Not originally intended as a novel, it spawned so many imitations in the form of novels (Lettres juives, Lettres chinoises, Lettres d’une Péruvienne etc) that even Montesquieu realised he had started a vogue: ‘My Lettres persanes taught people to write letter-novels’ (Montesquieu’s Mes Pensées: no. 1621).

    OCLC lists several copies in Europe and Israel, Montreal and UCLA.

    MMF 52.R37; En Français dans le texte, no. 138.

    View basket More details Price: £300.00
  • JULLIEN, Jean-Auguste, dit Desboulmiers (1731-1771).
    Mémoires du Marquis de Solanges. Première [-Seconde] Partie. Amsterdam, Esclapart, 1766.

    Second Edition. Two parts in one volume, 12mo, (162 x 90mm), pp. [iv], 151, [1]; [vi], 171, [1]; in contemporary quarter calf over yellow boards, spine gilt in compartments with red and green morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, red edges.

    A light-hearted sentimental novel set in diplomatic circles in Brussels and the Hague. The author, an officer in the cavalry, was a popular novelist ‘connu… (more)

    A light-hearted sentimental novel set in diplomatic circles in Brussels and the Hague. The author, an officer in the cavalry, was a popular novelist ‘connu comme littérateur dans le genre léger où il a fait preuve d’un certain esprit’ (DLF). Desboulmiers, as he was known, also had an interest in the theatre and a broad knowledge of its history. His two most important works on theatre history, Histoire anecdotique et raisonnée du théâtre italien, Paris 1769 and Histoire du théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique, Paris 1769, are still consulted today.
    This is one of three novels first published in 1766 by Desboulmiers, the others being De tout un peu ou les amusements de la campagne, Amsterdam 1766 and Honny soit qui mal y pense ou histoires de filles célebres du XVIIIe siècle, Londres 1766. This is the second of two editions of this work which appeared in the same year under the same imprint. MMF record a further three editions.

    OCLC lists Amsterdam, McGill, UCLA, NYPL and Vanderbilt.

    Cioranescu 34767; Gay III, 163; MMF 66.27.

    View basket More details Price: £350.00
  • Histoire de M. le Marquis de Cressy, by RICCOBONI, Marie Jeanne Laboras de Mézières, Madame (1713-1792).
    RICCOBONI, Marie Jeanne Laboras de Mézières, Madame (1713-1792).
    Histoire de M. le Marquis de Cressy, Traduite de l’Anglois par Madame de ***. Amsterdam, 1758.

    First Edition. 12mo in eights and fours, (162 x 92mm), pp. [ii], 176, 3 errata, text a little browned and creased in part, in contemporary mottled calf, slightly rubbed, head and tail of spine slightly chipped, marbled endpapers, red edges, with the contemporary ownership inscription of Ernest d’Aumont.

    First edition of one of Riccoboni’s scarcer early novels. Written in the third person, as against the epistolary form that came to be her preferred… (more)

    First edition of one of Riccoboni’s scarcer early novels. Written in the third person, as against the epistolary form that came to be her preferred genre (although some ten letters are given in the body of the text and those mostly in the first half), Histoire de M. le Marquis de Cressy is an analytical sentimental novel in which the egotistical and ambitious Cressy seeks, Valmont-like, to forward his career and his fortune through a series of well-placed seductions. Riccoboni’s interest, as always, lies in the collateral damage done to the female characters through their involvement with the hero and it is in the subtlety and astuteness of Riccoboni’s psychological analysis that the strength of the novel lies.
    ‘The best [of Riccoboni’s novels] is her Histoire de M. le marquis de Cressy (1758), in which the conflict of motive happens to be in the mind of a man. The middle-aged marquis has engaged the affections of a young girl, and for a moment hesitates between the charm of her youth and the worldly advantages of marriage with a beautiful widow who will second his ambitions. He writes one of those sophistical letters in which Madame Riccoboni excelled, explaining to the unfortunate girl that although his heart burns for her he must sacrifice his dreams of happiness. She feels that life for her is over, and takes the veil, bidding her perfidious lover adieu. She loves him yet, though she knows now that she has loved an illusion: it is not the lover that is most regretted, but the sentiment, the enchantment that has flown, the bliss of loving. That is the consolation of the sentimentalist’ (Ernest Albert Baker, The History of the English Novel, v.1 p. 137).
    This was a very popular novel, with several other editions of the French text following in 1758 and subsequent years. An English translation was published in 1765 under the title The History of the Marquis of Cressy. Translated from the French (Block p. 197).

    OCLC lists BN, BL, Göttingen, London Library, British Columbia, UCLA, Yale and Williams College.

    MMF 58:17; Cioranescu 53041.

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  • ALLETZ, Pons Augustin (1703-1785).
    Magasin Enigmatique, contenant un grand nombre d’Enigmes ingénieuses, choisies entre toutes celles qui ont paru depuis près d’un Siecle. Paris, la Veuve Duchesne, 1767.

    First Edition. 12mo, pp. viii, 376, in contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments, brown morocco label lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers and edges.

    A ‘shop of riddles’, this scarce volume of poetry includes three hundred and thirty-seven enigmatic poems or verse riddles on subjects as diverse as the… (more)

    A ‘shop of riddles’, this scarce volume of poetry includes three hundred and thirty-seven enigmatic poems or verse riddles on subjects as diverse as the moon, the game of chess, glasses (‘nous sommes deux soeurs de même âge’), carnivals, fables, the opera and a pearl necklace. A key to the solutions is found at the back of the work.

    OCLC lists BN, Sainte-Geneviève, Rennes, Lyon, Copenhagen and BL.

    Cioranescu 7812.

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  • CHEVRIER, François-Antoine de (1721-1762).
    Testament Politique du Maréchal duc de Belle-Isle. Paris, aux dépens des Libraires associés, 1762.

    Small 8vo, (154 x 87mm), pp. v [ie viii], 184, in contemporary Germany speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments with black morocco label lettered in gilt, covers gilt with heraldic arms and lettered ‘AWGVDS’, with the elegant heraldic bookplate of Achatz Wilhelm, ReichsGraff von der Schulenburg, marbled endpapers.

    An attractive copy in a German heraldic binding of these popular apocryphal memoirs, first published in Amsterdam in 1761. Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de… (more)

    An attractive copy in a German heraldic binding of these popular apocryphal memoirs, first published in Amsterdam in 1761. Charles Louis Auguste Fouquet, duc de Belle-Isle (1684-1761) was the grandson of the famous finance minister to Louis XIV. Chevrier’s work was hugely popular, running to many editions in French and being translated into English as The Political Testament of the Marshal Duke of Belle Isle, London 1762. The subjects covered include taxation, commerce, law, imports, the celebacy of priests and luxury. Chapter Five (pp. 97-101) is about the history of the young pretender and the Stuarts. ‘Je vois, avec douleur, que tous les Princes de la Maison de Stuard ont mérité l’horreur de leur situation par foiblesse, ou par nonchalance, & je pense qu’il faut regarder cette Maison comme éteinte, par le découragement de celui qui seul peut la relever’ (p. 102).

    OCLC lists BL, Cambridge, NLS, Yale, College of the Holy Cross, Princeton and Syracuse.

    See Cioranescu 19479; Einaudi, 1076; Goldsmiths, 9713; INED, 379; Higgs, 2627

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