Thomas CORNEILLE

New edition, corrected and expanded by Fontenelle. Volume I extends from A to L, volume II from M to Z. 2 title vignettes and engraved initials by Mariette. Title pages in red and black. Printed in 2 columns.
Armorial copy with arms completely scraped away. One can still distinguish an anchor in the shield and a shell at the upper right of the anchor.
Contemporary full brown calf binding. Spine with raised bands richly decorated with central fleuron and scattered stars. Title and volume labels in garnet morocco. Split headcaps. Joints cracked at head and foot. Corners very bumped and worn. Lacks to edges, along the raised bands.
This dictionary of terms used in the sciences and arts originally appeared in 1684. Fontenelle corrected numerous errors and approximations in it, notably due to a certain lack of knowledge of the origin of words, particularly Greek ones. Fontenelle further extended the dictionary to other fields, natural sciences, with birds, fish, but also religious and military orders, certain words from old French... His work ranks him among the first encyclopedists of the 18th century.

The first three volumes of this collected edition appeared for the first time in 1662, volume IV, published in 1673, contains only pieces in first edition, namely: Laodice, Le baron d'Albikrack, La mort d'Annibal, La comtesse d'orgueil, Ariane, Teodate. The fifth volume contains in first edition La mort d'Achille, Circé, L'inconnu, Le comte d'Essex. The first three volumes each have a frontispiece title and continuous pagination, the other two volumes have separate pagination, with specific title pages for each piece. Each volume bears on its title page, part I, through V.
Contemporary full calf bindings, very ornate raised-band spines. Uniform binding on all 5 volumes. Upper headcap of volume 3 worn, and part of the headcap of volume 3 missing, lower headcap of volume 4 worn. Tear with loss to joint of volume 5. Despite the noted defects, the set constitutes a handsome series.
« Thomas Corneille left forty-two dramatic works and achieved great success in the theater: the most famous, Ariane, le Comte d'Essex, tragedies, le Festin de Pierre, versified comedy by Molière. Palissot later reproached him for his "romantic intrigues," and La Harpe for "flabby and incorrect versification," Boileau said of him that he was "merely a cadet from Normandy." Voltaire said that, with the exception of Racine, "he was the only one of his time who was worthy of being first below his brother." Voltaire said elsewhere that he was a "man who would have a great reputation if he had not had a brother." Thomas Corneille, a good grammarian, worked on the Dictionary, made a Dictionary of terms of arts and sciences in two volumes, a universal geographical and historical Dictionary in three volumes, in 1687, he published with his own notes a new edition of Vaugelas's Remarks, he also made translations. He belonged to the party of the moderns, fought La Bruyère, received Fontenelle, took an important part in the Furetière affair. He was a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. He died blind, on December 8, 1709. » Biography of the French Academy.