Daniel CARTIER

New edition, in part a first edition as it is augmented with one volume. 4 title pages. Continuous pagination throughout each volume. Title pages in red and black with 4 vignettes.
Contemporary full brown calf binding, marbled and glazed. Richly decorated spine with raised bands, roulettes. Red morocco title and volume labels. A small lack at head of volume I, another at the lower joint at tail of volume II, otherwise a handsome copy.
The work is a collection of thoughts, stories, poetry, and humorous notes on all sorts of subjects: drunkenness, brunettes, tea, cabalists, hunting, celibacy, wealth—a kind of entertaining, original and free counterpart to the edifying and moral collections of thoughts that circulated at the same time. The whole reads like a periodical, always in an entertaining and satirical spirit. This literary genre, practiced by Swift and Addison, was highly popular in the 18th century, embracing the nuances of free, critical, and always amusing reading.

First edition. Uncommon. One copy at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (and a reprint from 1730) and another at Oxford. Absent from the British Library and French catalogues.
Late 18th-century full pasteboard binding. Red morocco title label. Upper and lower joints cracked 5 cm on lower board. The upper corner in right margin of title page has been torn away without loss of text. Title page of second volume missing. Pages 1 to 12, the upper corner of each page has been torn away with occasional loss of a few letters. A hole in the middle of the last page of the table of contents. The beginning of the fourth part is annotated, certain paragraphs are crossed out, some lines deleted. Leaf 35 detached.
The work is a collection of thoughts on all sorts of matters, on drunkenness, brunettes, tea, hunting, celibacy, riches, a kind of entertaining, original and free counterpart to the edifying and moral collections of thoughts that circulated at the same time.