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  • Emilie de Varmont, by LOUVET DE COUVRAY, Jean-Baptise 1760-1797.
    LOUVET DE COUVRAY, Jean-Baptise 1760-1797.
    Emilie de Varmont, ou le Divorce Nécessaire, et les Amours du Curé de Sévin, par l'Auteur de Faublas. Tome Premier [-Troisième]. Paris, Bailly, 1791.

    First Edition. Three volumes in one, 12mo in sixes, (124 x 75mm), engraved frontispiece by Lorieux after Chaillou to each volume and pp. [iv], [5]-160; [iv], [5]-174; [iv], 191, [1], occasional light dampstaining, in contemporary quarter green calf over marbled boards with vellum tips, flat spine ruled and decorated in gilt, lettered in gilt, with the contemporary heraldic bookplate of E.W. Wynne Pendarves.

    An attractive copy of Louvet de Couvray's novel, with the rare and rather striking frontispieces present in each volume. Uncommon in any state, it is… (more)

    An attractive copy of Louvet de Couvray's novel, with the rare and rather striking frontispieces present in each volume. Uncommon in any state, it is particularly hard to find with the plates, which are not mentioned in any of the references noted below but which evidently belong here and greatly add to the dramatic impact of the narrative.
    Taking as its subject matter divorce and the marriage of priests, it is a racy tale with forced vocations and amorous adventures. Set in provincial France, it is written as an epistolary novel featuring Dorothée and Emilie de Varmont, Monsieur Bovile and Madame d'Etioles. It had considerable political influence in France, producing two memorable decrees of the National Convention, the one authorising divorce and the other allowing priests to marry. A piracy of the text gave rise to a court case (Dalloz, Jurisprudence générale du royaume, 1830, XI, 481 and note). Further editions appeared in 1792, 1794 and 1815. It was published more recently by the Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2001. An English translation was published under the title Emily de Varmont, or Divorce dictated by Necessity, to which are added, the Memoirs of Father Sévin, London, G. Kearsley, 1798 and an American edition, in a translation by Melatiah Nash, was published in New York in 1799 under the title Emilia de Varmont, or the Necessary Divorce, and Memoirs of Curate Sevin: a Moral and Political Tale.

    Cioranescu 40897; MMF 91.34; Oberlé 142; Cohen-de Ricci p. 661 (1794 edition).

    View basket More details Price: £850.00
  • LE SAGE, Alain René (1668-1747).
    Le Bachelier de Salamanque, ou les Memoires de D. Cherubin de la Ronda, tirés d'un Manuscrit Espagnol, par Monsieur Le Sage. Paris, Valleyre, 1736.

    First Edition. 12mo, (155 x 84mm), pp. [viii], 378, [5], with three engraved plates, one to accompany each section, outer corner of text dampstained in the last few leaves and some light browning to the prelims, in contemporary or slightly later free-style tree calf with an attractive simple gilt border on the covers, the spine stained green, gilt in compartments with gilt lettering, marbled endpapers, Chiswick bookplate.

    A handsome copy of the first part, containing the first three books, of one of the most popular picaresque novels of the French eighteenth century.… (more)

    A handsome copy of the first part, containing the first three books, of one of the most popular picaresque novels of the French eighteenth century. Although it is stated on p. 378, ‘Fin du troisième & dernier Livre’, a second volume appeared two years later, containing books four to six (La Haye, Pierre Gosse, 1738).
    Although not in quite the same league as his Gil Blas, Le Sage's Bachelier de Salamanque shares many of the same features, from the successful formula of the hero's many adventures loosely bound together to the enduringly popular Spanish theme common to many of Le Sage's novels. There were numerous editions throughout the century and beyond.
    'He was a writer for his time, an artisan of letters, and a supporter of the modernes in the Quérelle. He wrote for a broad public, and Gil Blas in particular was much appreciated by readers of many countries for two centuries. Critics have sometimes viewed him rather more patronisingly, condemning the diffuse nature of his narratives and the banality or superficiality of his morality and his psychology. Yet he is in many ways a fascinating witness of his period. His writing is sharp and up to date, he has a gift for the dramatic scene and a keen eye for the masks and pretences of a corrupt society. While reusing old literary material, he nevertheless gives us a strong sense of life in a real, unidealized world' (Peter France in the New Oxford Companion to Literature in French).

    Jones p. 59; Cioranescu 39528 (giving p. 383); Cohen-de Ricci c. 635; Tchemerzine VII, 206.

    View basket More details Price: £250.00
  • Les Bijoux Indiscrets. by DIDEROT, Denis (1713-1784).
    DIDEROT, Denis (1713-1784).
    Les Bijoux Indiscrets. Tome Premier [Second]. ‘Monomotapa’, ie Paris, 1748.

    Second Edition. Two volumes, 12mo, (160 x 92mm), engraved frontispiece and pp. [viii], 288; [iv], 332, four further engraved plates in volume one and two further in volume two, wanting the final leaf, ‘Avis au Relieur’, marginal tear on I, 239, in contemporary half sheep over speckled boards, spines gilt in compartments with green morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, attractive colourful patterned endpapers, edges marbled.

    An attractive copy of this early edition of Diderot's controversial novel, listed second by David Adams and given as the second edition by Tchemerzine. The… (more)

    An attractive copy of this early edition of Diderot's controversial novel, listed second by David Adams and given as the second edition by Tchemerzine. The plates all correspond to Adams BI2 except for the first plate in the second volume which has been bound at p. 265 and is marked as such. All the plates have the word ‘Les Bijoux’ underneath the picture and the volume and page numbers marked at the top. The frontispiece, which is the same as Adams’ BI1, is marked ‘tom. I’ and ‘Frontispiece des Bijoux’. The final leaf as called for by Adams, ‘Avis au Relieur pour placer les Figures’ has been discarded.
    Three editions of Diderot’s Bijoux were published in 1748, all with the same title and imprint but with varying illustrations, this edition with the shorter pagination than the other two. This is Diderot’s first novel, written to raise funds to pay for the expensive lifestyle of his mistress, Madame de Puisieux. Based on the medieval tale 'Le chevalier que faisait les cons parler' and heavily influenced by Caylus' adaptation of this and Crebillon fils' contes libertins, Diderot soon came to disavow his earliest and raciest work. It caused an enormous scandal on its publication and, along with his Lettres sur les aveugles, was the cause of Diderot's being imprisoned in Vincennes. This is Diderot's nearest approach to the world of Thérèse Philosophe (on the publication of Bijoux Indiscrets this was frequently attributed to him), 'the bawdy, naughty, cheeky world of the early Enlightenment, where everything was held up to question and nothing was sacred' (Darnton p. 90).
    Even in this, his most scandalous and light-hearted work, Diderot was beginning to express the philosophical ideas that came to fruition in his later work. 'La critique du cartésianisme, des systèmes à priori, des rêveries de la métaphysique, l'apologie de Newton, certaines théories empiristes et associationnistes, les professions de foi de naturalisme moral montrent que, même dans un ouvrage très léger... Diderot n'oublie pas la philosophie' (H. Bénac, quoted by Henri Berthaut in Grente's Dictionnaire des Lettres Françaises).

    Adams, Bibliographie des Œuvres de Diderot, BI2; Tchemerzine IV p. 430 B; Jones p. 97; Darnton Check List 62; see also Cioranescu 24057; Darnton, Forbidden Best-Sellers, p. 90; Gay I, 303; Cohen-de Ricci c. 303.

    View basket More details Price: £950.00
  • FILLASSIER, Jean-Jacques (1745-1799).
    Culture de la Grosse Asperge, dite de Holland, la plus précoce, la plus hâtive, la plus fécond & la plus durable que l’on connoisse. Traité qui présente les moyens de la cultiver avec succès, en toutes sortes de terres. Par M. Fillassier, des Académies d’Arras, de Lyon, de Marseille, & Corespondant de celle de Toulouse. Nouvelle Edition. Amsterdam, Méquignon, 1784.

    Second Edition. 12mo, pp. iv, 149, [2] table of contents,
    paper fault p. 67/68, touching the text,
    in contemporary half sheep over marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt, wanting the label.

    A comprehensive treatise on asparagus cultivation by Jean-Jacques Fillassier, educator, moralist and admirer of his Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His few works enjoyed considerable success: his first… (more)

    A comprehensive treatise on asparagus cultivation by Jean-Jacques Fillassier, educator, moralist and admirer of his Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His few works enjoyed considerable success: his first work Eraste ou l’Ami de la jeunesse, 1773, was reprinted several times and well into the nineteenth century; he also wrote a popular Dictionnaire historique d’éducation, 1771 and a Dictionnaire du jardinier français, 1789. He ran a tree-nursery at Clamart and was a member of several academies. It is interesting that he puts in a puff for the nursery in the Avis to the present work. Stating how hard it is to find asparagus without having it travel a long way, Fillassier advertises his own asparagus plants available for sale at Clamart sou Meudon, near Paris, at the price of 15 livres per thousand.
    First published in 1779, this was a very influential work and was published in numerous editions as late as 1815. A detailed study of all aspects of asparagus, Fillassier discusses its origins and nature and the history of its cultivation as well as giving detailed advice on suitable terrain, preparation of the asparagus beds and the care to be taken in its planting, in the first three years after planting and subsequently in the harvesting and cutting of the asparagus. The final chapter of the main text deals with the uses and properties of asparagus. This is followed by a question and answer section on various agricultural aspects, which concludes the work. The author includes detailed footnotes and quotations from other authors throughout.
    Despite its evident popularity, this work is now scarce in any edition. This edition is probably the most common, although OCLC lists only four copies in America (at UC San Diego, Hagley Museum, National Agricultural Library, Rutgers), and three copies in France.

    View basket More details Price: £450.00
  • 'how Paris looked, sounded, smelled, and felt on the eve of the Revolution'
    Mon Bonnet de Nuit. by MERCIER, Louis Sebastien (1740-1814).
    MERCIER, Louis Sebastien (1740-1814).
    Mon Bonnet de Nuit. Par M. Mercier... Tome Premier [-Quatrième]. Neuchâtel, la Société Typographique, 1784 [Vols III & IV: Lausanne, Jean-Pierre Heubach, 1785].

    First Edition of Vols. I & II; Vols. III & IV same year as the first edition. Four volumes, 8vo, (190 x 114mm), pp. [iv], 396; [iv], 423; [ii], 360; [ii], 346, wanting the half-titles in the third and fourth volumes, occasional heavy browning in the last two volumes, in contemporary mottled calf, central monogram gilt on all covers, spines gilt in compartments, numbered in gilt, red morocco labels lettered in gilt.

    An attractive copy of one of Mercier's most important works, a collection of short essays, some written in the form of dream sequences, and one… (more)

    An attractive copy of one of Mercier's most important works, a collection of short essays, some written in the form of dream sequences, and one or two 'contes'. Some parts had previously been published in Mercier's Songes philosophiques, 1768, but this was very much part of Mecier's distinctive style. 'He published prodigiously by recycling passages from one book to another and stretching essays into multi-volume tracts. His major works - L'An 2440, Tableau de Paris, and Mon Bonnet de Nuit - therefore have a formless character. They are composed of short chapters on a wide variety of subjects, which Mercier cobbled together without worrying about narrative coherence. When a book caught on, he expanded it, cutting and pasting and fighting off pirates as he advanced from one edition to the next. The result was never elegant, but it often had a gripping quality, because Mercier knew how to observe the world around him and to make it come alive in anecdotes and essays. There is no better writer to consult if one wants to get some idea of how Paris looked, sounded, smelled, and felt on the eve of the Revolution' (Darnton, The Forbidden Best-Sellers, 1996, p. 118).
    The work is made up of two distinct parts. In the first edition, volumes III and IV bear exactly the same imprint as the present edition but have a different pagination, viz. pp. [iv], 390; [iv], 382. It was inordinately popular and many editions followed, both in two and in four volumes. MMF lists a total of twenty-six editions. The final two volumes were also published under the title, Mon Bonnet du Matin.

    Cioranescu 44452, calling for two 1784 Neuchatel volumes only; see also Gay III 257, 'curieux receuil d'anecdotes pour servir à l'histoire du XVIII siècle'.

    View basket More details Price: £650.00
  • licentious novel sometimes attributed to Restif
    NOUGARET, Pierre Jean Baptiste (1742-1823).
    Les foiblesses d’une jolie femme, ou Mémoires de Madame de Vilfranc, Ecrits par elle-même. Première [-Seconde] Partie. Amsterdam, Belin, 1779.

    Second Edition? Two parts in one volume, 12mo, (160 x 87mm), pp. viii, 94; [iv], 103, wanting the final advertisement (?) leaf to the first volume, in contemporary quarter calf over imitation leather boards, flat spine gilt in compartments, green morocco label (surface rather chipped) vertically lettered in gilt, head of spine chipped.

    A scarce early edition of this notorious licentious novel, attributed both the Nougaret and Restif de la Bretonne, presented as the true memoirs of an… (more)

    A scarce early edition of this notorious licentious novel, attributed both the Nougaret and Restif de la Bretonne, presented as the true memoirs of an attractive young lady, one Madame de Vilfranc. It caused a considerable flurry on publication, was republished at least eight times and was widely accepted as a genuine set of memoirs. Even Voltaire was said to have been taken in by the hoax.
    However, this latter statement calls into question the date of the first edition, as Voltaire died in 1778. There does appear to be some uncertainty as to when the novel first appeared. MMF states that Barbier, Gay, Mornet and Quérard all give an edition of 1776 and Delcro an edition of 1778, but they were unable to find it. I have been unable to find any trace of an earlier edition in any of the usual on-line databases, but whilst Cioranescu and MMF go for the 1779 first edition, the combined weight of Barbier, Gay, Mornet, Quérard and Delcro is hard to wave aside. Besides, there are at least two 1779 editions, not distinguished by MMF or Cioranescu, the one listed by MMF, with pp. iv, 144; 159 and the present edition (Trinity College Dublin only listed in Copac).
    The novel, described as ‘assez érotique’ by Gay, has also been attributed to Restif de la Bretonne, with whom Nougaret collaborated on a number of occasions. ‘On trouve encore là un cordon de sonnette indiscret’, says Gay. The setting is amongst the merchant classes and the action takes place in Paris. In addition to the contemporary popularity of the work, it seems to have had a following in subsequent centuries, published by Lalouette-Douce in 1885, by Edmond Vairel in 1951 and translated into German in 1920 and in 1978.

    See Cioranescu 48442; MMF 79.28; Gay II 226 (under ‘faiblesses’).

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  • ‘Superficial, frivolous and not for philosophers’ but widely read anyway
    Les Souvenirs de Félicie L***. by GENLIS, Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité Ducrest de Mézières, comtesse de (1746-1830).
    GENLIS, Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité Ducrest de Mézières, comtesse de (1746-1830).
    Les Souvenirs de Félicie L***. Par Mme de Genlis. Seconde Edition. Paris, Maradan, 1806.

    Second Edition. 12mo, (168 x 88mm), pp. 394, in slightly later dark blue half morocco over green marbled boards, spine simply ruled and lettered in gilt, all edges green, with the ownership inscription ‘E. ? Nugent’ and the later bookplate of Anthony Surtees.

    The first edition of this work was published by Maradan in 1804, although it had been serialised in the Bibliothèque des Romans and parts of… (more)

    The first edition of this work was published by Maradan in 1804, although it had been serialised in the Bibliothèque des Romans and parts of it had been pirated and printed in various journals. It was enormously popular and ran to several editions. A continuation was published, also by Maradan, under the title Suite des Souvenirs de Félicie, Paris 1807. With a dedication to Madame de Genlis’ brother, the original preface to the 1804 edition in which she discusses the work’s early popularity and compares it to the Souvenirs of Madame de Caylus and of Madame Necker. It also includes the fictional introduction by the editor of the works of the late eponymous author.
    ‘Cet ouvrage superficiel et frivole n’est fait ni pour les penseurs ni pour les philosophes, mais il plaira peut-êtreà ceux qui aiment le naturel et la variété’ (Avertissement de l’Editeur des OEuvres posthumes de madame de L***, p. 11).

    See Cioranescu 30650.

    View basket More details Price: £100.00
  • Marie Menzikof, et Fédor Dolgorouki by LA FONTAINE, Auguste Heinrich Julius (1759-1831).MONTOLIEU, Jeanne-Isabelle-Pauline Polier de Bottens, baronne de (1751-1832), translator.
    LA FONTAINE, Auguste Heinrich Julius (1759-1831).
    MONTOLIEU, Jeanne-Isabelle-Pauline Polier de Bottens, baronne de (1751-1832), translator.
    Marie Menzikof, et Fédor Dolgorouki Histoire Russe, en forme de lettres. Traduit de l’Allemand d’Auguste La Fontaine. Par Mme. Isabelle de Montolieu. Tome I [-II]. Paris, Gosset, 1804.

    First Edition in French. Two volumes, 12mo, (155 x 90mm), pp. viii, 376; [ii], 291, bound without the half-titles, in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, flat spines ruled and gilt in compartments, lettered and numbered in gilt directly onto the spines, joints slightly splitting, some wear to extremities, attractive but for a sizeable piece of leather missing from the head of the spine of vol. I (10x17mm), with the bookplates of John Drummond and Anthony Surtees.

    An epistolary novel by Auguste Lafontaine, set in Russia in the early eighteenth century and translated by Isabelle de Montolieu, a writer strongly influenced by… (more)

    An epistolary novel by Auguste Lafontaine, set in Russia in the early eighteenth century and translated by Isabelle de Montolieu, a writer strongly influenced by the German and English literature of the time. Lafontaine’s romantic fiction had a wide readership among women throughout Europe and was enormously popular in England. Summers lists some thirty titles published in English, in some cases in more than one version, many of which, including the present novel, were printed by the Minerva Press. The present novel, first published as Fedor und Marie in 1803, was translated as Dolgorucki and Menzikoff, A Russian Tale, London, Minerva Press, 1805 (see Blakey p. 214). There was also a three volume ‘Londres’ edition of this French translation, also 1804, but Cioranescu gives precedence to this Paris edition.

    OCLC lists Bodleian, Toronto, Amsterdam, Missouri and Princeton only. The Londres 1804 edition only slightly more common, at CUL, UCLA, Yale, Rider University, Cleveland PL and Texas.

    Cioranescu 47088; not in Gay, who lists Duperche’s 1817 translation only (III, 65); Cf. Summers, pp. 89 and 298.

    View basket More details Price: £300.00
  • Poetæ minores Græci. by WINTERTON, Ralph (1601-1636).
    WINTERTON, Ralph (1601-1636).
    Poetæ minores Græci. Hesiodus, Theocritus, Moschus,... Quibus subjungitur eorum potissimum quae ad Philosophiam Moralem pertinent, Index Utilis. Accedunt etiam Observationes Radulphi Wintertoni in Hesiodum. Cambridge, Hayes, 1684.

    8vo, pp. [viii], 224, 227-533, [1], 88, [1], [2], title-page with typographic border, parallel text in Greek and Latin throughout, tightly bound in continental contemporary vellum, double gilt filet to covers with corner ornaments, central rectangular panels with a hooved long-tailed figure with a human face leaning on a heraldic shield, lacking ties, spine ruled and stamped in gilt, in four compartments, tooling faded and lettered in ink over the faded ornament in the top compartment, with the bookplate of Reinholdi Dezeimeris in Latin and Greek.

    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… (more)

    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.

    Wing P2734.

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  • ‘Olla potrida d’Amouretti, e di Filosofia’
    ARGENS, Jean-Baptiste le Boyer, marquis d' (1704-1771).
    CHIARI, Pietro, translator (1712-1785).
    Il finto Cavaliere o siano le Memorie di Madamigella di Mainville Scritte dal Marchese d’Argens, e per la prima volta Tradotte dal Francese. Venice, Locatelli, 1767.

    First Edition in Italian. 8vo, engraved frontispiece and pp. [iii]-xvi, CXCVII, [8] advertisements, occasional light browning in text, uncut throughout in contemporary white paste-paper boards, spine lettered in ink, remains of library shelf label at foot of spine, early ownership inscription crossed out on front paste down and some faded manuscript notes.

    A good copy of this scarce Italian translation of the Marquis d’Argens’ lively and risqué novel, first published as Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Mainville, ou… (more)

    A good copy of this scarce Italian translation of the Marquis d’Argens’ lively and risqué novel, first published as Mémoires de Mademoiselle de Mainville, ou le Feint Chevalier, La Haye 1736. The eponymous heroine runs away from home in order to avoid being married against her will or sent to a convent. Accompanied by her lover, who refuses to let her go without him and promises solemnly to respect her honour, the two travel together as brother and sister. However, her beauty attracts too much attention and the so-called siblings keep getting into trouble, so our heroine decides to dress as a man in order that the two might travel in safety. ‘Après avoir bien rêvé, ils n’en trouvérent pas de meilleur, que celui de déguiser le sexe de Mademoiselle de Mainville. Elle en comprit elle-même toute la nécessité, & résolut de s’habiller en homme. Dans ce nouvel état, elle parut encore plus belle. Jamais cavalier ne fut d’une figure si aimable & si propre à troubler le repos des Dames’ (I, 32). For a while, they frequent gambling circles where they are very succesful, until an argument lands them in a duel, after which she is arrested and taken to jail. On their travels they meet engagingly louche characters, such as a famous debauched opium addict, numerous swindlers in different guises and a duchess who ‘simply adores opera’.
    With a witty dedication to the shadow of Bayle in which d’Argens regrets that he is unable to dedicate a more serious work than a novel to him, rather than this ‘Pot-pourri d’Amourettes & de Philosophie’ [‘Olla potrida d’Amouretti, e di Filosofia’]. Were he less lazy, and less amorous, he would have finished his Doutes Metaphysiques [‘Dubbj Metafisici’], but in nine months he has barely managed to write three pages. He has therefore let his imagination dictate to his pen and, instead of the words ‘existence’ and ‘determinism’, he has focused on those of ‘Bachus’, ‘pleasure’ and ‘love’.

    See Cioranescu 8306; not in OCLC.

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  • CREBILLON, Claude-Prosper-Jolyot de, 'Crébillon fils', (1701-1777).
    Le Sopha, Conte Moral. Première [-Second] Volume. ‘Gaznah’, ie Paris, 1742.

    Second Edition. Two volumes, 12mo in eights and fours, (162 x 92mm), pp. [vi], 298; [vi], 264, title pages in red and black, in contemporary calf, spines gilt in compartments, head of spines chipped, upper joint of first volume cracking, other joints beginning to show some wear, extremities bumped, red morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, with the bookplate of Anthony Conyers Surtees in volume one.

    The second edition, following the very scarce Le Sopha couleur de roze, 1120 de l’Hégire, a Gaznah, also published in 1742. Neither Jones nor Tchemerzine… (more)

    The second edition, following the very scarce Le Sopha couleur de roze, 1120 de l’Hégire, a Gaznah, also published in 1742. Neither Jones nor Tchemerzine had seen a copy of this earlier edition (Jones just lists the present edition as the first) but it does exist: OCLC lists copies at Cambridge, V&A, Penn, McGill and Texas.
    Le Sopha is Crébillon fils’ most brilliant novel. It was enormously popular in its time, with its humour, its mild eroticism and its fashionable eastern setting, and is still entertaining today. Dozens of editions have been published from the eigtheenth century to the present. The central character was thought to have been based on Louis XV, a suspicion which was enough to enable Madame de Pompadour to have Crébillon exiled for five years. Laclos further immortalised the work by making it the favourite reading for Madame de Merteuil in his Les Liaisons dangereuses.
    ‘Crébillon déteste et méprise l’étroite société qu’il décrite, ses hauts personnages hypocrites, corrompus, égoïstes, méchants, inutiles, médisants, fats et quelquefois sots, il fait même passer l’expression satirique de sa haine avant l’intérêt romanesque... A part deux chapitres du Sopha qui évoquent avec lyrisme le franc et vrai plaisir d’aimer, tout le reste de l’oeuvre est pessimiste et grimaçant... à la galerie des imposteurs et des vicieux s’oppose une galerie de libertins lucides, mais aussi antipathiques, et dont aucun n’est vraiment heureux’ (Henri Coulet, Le Roman au XVIII Siècle, pp. 365-366). We can be thankful for those two chapters, which are chapter seven and the final chapter.

    Jones p. 79; Tchemerzine IV, p. 193 (b) and p. 194 (figs. I & II); Gay III 1135; see Cioranescu 21744.

    OCLC lists McGill, Arkansas, Yale, Harvard, Texas, Bodley & V&A; RLIN adds Princeton and Penn.

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  • RODELLA, Giovanni Battista (1724-1794).
    Vita Costumi e Scritti del Conte Giammaria Mazzuchelli, Patrizio Bresciano. Brescia, Bossini, 1766.

    First Edition. 8vo, engraved portrait frontispiece and pp. [iv], 5-120, title-page vignette, in contemporary vellum, a little bit dusty and stained but sound and internally a clean and crisp copy, red morocco label lettered in gilt, with the contemporary inscription ‘1767 di Faustino Gussago’, all edges marbled.

    First edition of this comprehensive biography and bibliography of Giammaria Mazzuchelli (1707-1765). He is mostly remembered for his vastly ambitious work, the Scrittori d’Italia, 1753-1763,… (more)

    First edition of this comprehensive biography and bibliography of Giammaria Mazzuchelli (1707-1765). He is mostly remembered for his vastly ambitious work, the Scrittori d’Italia, 1753-1763, which, though it only extended to the first two letters of the alphabet, was widely praised for its biographical and bibliographical detail. In addition to his work as literary historian, Mazzuchelli was also an important cultural figure, as is clear from the list of his correspondents, which include Carli, Beccaria, Belgrado, Maffei, Muratori, Volpi and Tiraboschi. For a Brescia printing, it is also worth noting that Mazzuchelli was the founder of the Academia Mazzuchelliana, the Brescia literary society.

    OCLC and RLIN list copies at Oxford, Göttingen, Stanford, Berkeley, Newberry, Illinois, Harvard and Duke.

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  • QUEVEDO Y VILLEGAS, Francisco Gomez de (1580-1645).
    Politica de Dios, y Govierno de Christo, Sacada de la Sagrada Escritura, para acierto de Rey, y Reyno en sus Acciones. Por Don Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, Cavallero del Orden de Santiago, Senor de la Torre de Juan Abad. Madrid, Joseph Rodriguez de Escobar, 1729.

    4to, (208 x 142mm), pp. [xvi], 333, [4] table of contents, text heavily browned in part, but externally wonderfully fresh in later eighteenth century English half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt in compartments, red morocco label lettered in gilt, the Macclesfield copy with blind stamps, shelf marks and the South Library bookplate.

    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… (more)

    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).

    OCLC lists Columbia, DLC, Penn State and Dibam Biblioteca National de Chile.

    Palau 243833.

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  • ‘les premiers mémoires d’un écrivain vivant’ (Magnan)
    VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouet de (1694-1778).
    WAGNIERE, Jean-Louis (1739-1802 ).
    Commentaire Historique sur les Oeuvres de l’Auteur de l’Henriade, &c. Avec les Piéces originales & les preuves. Basle, Héritiers de Paul Duker, 1776.

    First Edition. 8vo, (193 x 115mm), pp. iv, 282, in contemporary mottled calf, flat spine gilt in compartments, yellow and red morocco labels lettered in gilt.

    An important source for information on Voltaire’s life, the Commentaire Historique was published when Voltaire was eighty-two. Written in the third person, it was dictated… (more)

    An important source for information on Voltaire’s life, the Commentaire Historique was published when Voltaire was eighty-two. Written in the third person, it was dictated by Voltaire to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagnière. It is the first autobiography of an author to be published in his lifetime: ‘Jamais encore on n’avait vu une “histoire d’auteur” écrite par l’auteur lui même, et publiée de son vivant’ (André Magnan, Dictionnaire Voltaire, p. 293). Some fifteen years earlier, Voltaire had left unfinished his Mémoires which contained a brief sketch of the main events of his life, but these were not published until 1784.
    Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire is very sketchy on his early life. No mention is made of his time in the Bastille or of his exile and there is only a little information on his stay in Prussia. The main focus of the book is on the last twenty years spent at Ferney and on his stand as the herald of human rights. His actions during the Calas and La Barre affairs are well documented as are his various stands against intolerance, superstition and injustice, such as abusive clerical taxation and the selling of state functions. He claims to have abandoned the power and influence derived from acquaintance with the Royal Court in favour of the power of public opinion. He makes a very interesting case for the militant intellectual as a counter-power to the establishment.
    The letters which form the second part of this work are of particular significance. Chosen by Voltaire, and in some cases printed with the replies, they include correspondence to and from Linguet, Horace Walpole, Hamilton, Chesterfield and Caylus.

    Cioranescu 64527; BN Voltaire Catalogue 4350.

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  • [BARBIN, Claude, editor.]
    Receuil des plus belles pieces des Poetes françois depuis Villon jusqu'à Benserade. Tome Premier... [-Sixième]. Paris, Compagnie des Libraires, 1752.

    Six volumes, small 12mo, pp. [xi], [i], 322; [ii], 314; [ii], 292; [ii], 312; [ii], 296; [ii], 260, [2] approbation, in contemporary mottled calf, blind rule to covers, flat spines elaborately gilt in compartments, red and black morocco labels lettered and numbered in gilt, with the contemporary bookplate of 'G.D.M.', a member of the Guillebon family, and the typographic booklabel of Madame Guillebon, la jeune, circa 1800: an excellent set with a nice provenance.

    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… (more)

    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.

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  • ROUSSEAU, Jean-Jacques (1712-1778).
    Les Confessions de J. J. Rousseau, suivies des Réveries du Promeneur Solitaire. Tome Premier [-Second]. [with:] Second Supplément a la Collection des Oeuvres de J. J. Rousseau, Citoyen de Genève. Tome Premier [-Second]. [with:] Seconde Partie des Confessions de J. J. Rousseau. Suivie d’un nouveau choix de Lettres de l’Auteur. Tome Premier. Geneva, 1782-1789.

    First Edition of volumes III and IV; Volumes I and II same year as the First Edition. Five volumes, 12mo, (164 x 92mm), pp. [iv], 316; [iv], 396; 439, with the final page beginning ‘ses mortelles’; 403, with the last line of the final page beginning ‘cette lecture’; [ii], 444, in near-uniform contemporary speckled morocco, joints weakening, some signs of wear with staining and rubbing, with some careful restoration, spines gilt with red and green morocco labels lettered in gilt, with the contemporary ownership inscription of Elizabeth Bateman in each volume, trimmed close with some loss in the final three volumes.

    A handsome set, in an English binding, of Rousseau’s Confessions, with a contemporary English female provenance. This is a mixed set, comprising the first edition… (more)

    A handsome set, in an English binding, of Rousseau’s Confessions, with a contemporary English female provenance. This is a mixed set, comprising the first edition of Volumes III and IV (conforming to Bernard Gagnebin and Lucien Scheler in Tchemerzine V, 563) and a reprint of Volumes I and II, with the same imprint, ‘A Genève, 1782’. It also has the supplementary fifth volume, Seconde Partie des Confessions de J.J. Rousseau. Suivie d’un nouveau choix de Lettres de l’Auteur, Geneve 1789 (OCLC lists the Vassar Collection only).
    The bindings on the first two volumes, published in 1782, are slightly different to those of the final three volumes, but each of them bears the ownership inscription of Elizabeth Bateman. In the first volume she has added ‘2 vols’ and so presumably she purchased them prior to the continuations, which were published some seven years later, and had them bound. In turn, she must have had the continuation volumes bound to match the first two, but perhaps by a different binder: the red labels and the green circular numbering pieces are uniform, but the actual tools used for the binding were different. This is a lovely example of literature on the go and shows how serial publications actually worked. That this is also an import, and an import owned by a female collector, rather adds to the resonance of this particular copy.

    Tchemerzine, V, 563; see also Cioranescu 54642-54643.

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  • ROCHEFORT, J., attributed.
    Le Passe-Tems Agréable, ou Nouveaux Choix de Bons Mots, de Pensées Ingénieuses, de Rencontres Plaisantes, dont une partie n’avoit point encore été mise au jour, Enrichi d’une Elite des plus Vives Gasconnades, Qui ne sont point dans le Gasconniana, Et de quelques Nouvelles Histoires Galantes, Le tout avec des Réflexions. Nouvelle Edition, augmentée de plus de double. Première Partie [-Seconde]. 1758.

    New Edition, ‘double the size of the last’. Two volumes, 12mo, pp. [xiv], 228; [ii], 216, in contemporary mottled calf, flat spines gilt in compartments with floral vignette, red and olive green morocco labels lettered in gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges red, green silk markers.

    A very attractive copy of a popular jestbook, first published in 1700. This new edition is advertised as being ‘augmentée de plus de double’, including… (more)

    A very attractive copy of a popular jestbook, first published in 1700. This new edition is advertised as being ‘augmentée de plus de double’, including a new previously unpublished part, new ‘vives gasconnades’ and several new ‘histoires galantes’, all accompanied by refexions. Apart from the mass of popular jokes, tales and so forth, gathered from street-parlance and everyday life and with no known origin, the authors and historical figures who unwittingly contributed their witty sayings to the present compilation include Thomas More, Bacon, Dante, Furetiere, Machiavelli, Rabelais, ‘le capitaine Miller’, ‘George’ and Socrates.
    This work is also attributed to Cartier de Saint Philip, author of Le Je ne Sais Quoi, ou mélanges curieux, 1724, though it is not listed in his works by Cioranescu.

    OCLC lists Louisiana State University.

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  • RICHARD, René (1654-1727).
    Le Veritable Pere Josef Capucin, nommé au Cardinalat. Contenant l’histoire anecdote du Cardinal de Richelieu. Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Butler, 1704.

    Second edition, first under this title. 12mo, pp. [iv], 589, [11], some light browning to text, in contemporary polished calf, triple gilt ruled border to covers, spine chipped at head and foot, otherwise attractive, richly gilt in compartments with a brown morocco label lettered in gilt, all edges marbled, blue marbled endpapers, with a barely readable ownership inscription on the title page and ‘Bibliothèque de Gaignal’ in a contemporary hand in brown ink on the final free endpaper.

    A scarce biography of the capucin friar Joseph Le Clerc du Tremblay (1577-1638) Richelieu’s intimate friend and advisor. Known as l’eminence grise, a nickname that… (more)

    A scarce biography of the capucin friar Joseph Le Clerc du Tremblay (1577-1638) Richelieu’s intimate friend and advisor. Known as l’eminence grise, a nickname that has come to signify individuals excercising hidden political power, le Père Joseph was immortalised in English literature by Aldous Huxley in his Grey Eminence.
    René Richard’s biography was first published under the title Histoire de la Vie du P. Joseph Le Clerc du Tremblay, capucin, in 1702 and republished anonymously here as Le Veritable Père Joseph. Curiously, Richard published a Réponse au livre intitulé Père Joseph, also in 1704, being a criticism of the present ‘anonymous’ work. It was appended to another 1704 printing of the original text under yet another title, Vie du P. Joseph Le Clerc du Tremblay, Geneva 1704. This is a scarce provincial printing from the Savoie region in the Auvergne in southern France.

    See Cioranescu 59193.

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  • the ‘divine scourge’ of princes
    La Vita di Pietro Aretino by MAZZUCHELLI, Gianmaria, conte, (1707-1765).
    MAZZUCHELLI, Gianmaria, conte, (1707-1765).
    La Vita di Pietro Aretino scritta dal conte Giammaria Mazzuchelli Bresciano. Padua, Comino, 1741

    First Edition. 8vo, engraved portrait frontispiece and pp. viii, 303, [1] colophon, [4] advertisements, in contemporary glazed cream paper boards, front joint cracking, headcap chipped, some other light wear and stains, yellow labels on spine lettered in gilt, the lower one ruled in ink.

    First edition of Mazzuchelli’s biography of the infamous poet, Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), known as the ‘scourge of princes’. Aretino’s satirical sonnets and burlesques were so… (more)

    First edition of Mazzuchelli’s biography of the infamous poet, Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), known as the ‘scourge of princes’. Aretino’s satirical sonnets and burlesques were so feared by the nobles and princes of his day that they appear to have handed out large sums of money to buy his silence. This so-called patronage funded a notoriously profligate lifestyle and his home in Venice (where he went having been banished from his home town of Arezzo on the publication of his sonnet against indulgences) became the scene of continuous revelling and orgies.
    The preface (pp. iii-viii) is supplied by A.F. Seghezzi. Giuseppe Bartoli’s letter to Mazzuchelli on the subject of the present work, praising the latter for his ‘erudizione si ammirabile’, is also included (pp. 263-267). The text is also accompanied by extensive bibliographical footnotes and a thirty-one page index.

    Brunet III, 1563.

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  • NOLIVOS SAINT-CYR, Paul Antoine, dit Laval (1727-1803).
    Tableau du siècle. Par un Auteur Connu. Geneva, 1759.

    First Edition. 12mo, (165 x 88mm), pp. [iv], xix, [i], 227, [1], in contemporary mottled calf, flat spine gilt in continuous pattern, red morocco label lettered in gilt.

    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,… (more)

    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).

    OCLC lists Princeton, Minnesota, Santa Barbara and Cornell.

    Cioranescu 48360.

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