Réflexions sur les grands hommes qui sont morts en plaisantant. Avec des poësies diverses. Par M. D***[Reflections on Great Men Who Died Jestingly. With Various Poems. By M. D***]
Second edition, illustrated with a macabre engraved frontispiece (cf. Quérard II, 516; Cioranescu, XVIII, 13544, for the original 1712 edition).
Contemporary handwritten annotations on the title leaf.
Full brown calf binding, spine with five raised bands richly gilt in compartments with decorative tools, red morocco title label largely missing, gilt fillet framing the covers, sprinkled edges, corners rubbed, contemporary binding.
Headcaps worn down, some rubbing to spine and boards.
Second edition of this highly engaging work of early “libertine” philosophy, in the original sense of the term.
The project of the Réflexions was inspired by a remark fro
