Antoine-Nicolas DEZALLIER D'ARGENVILLE

Third augmented edition of this important artistic guide to Paris under Louis XV. A title-frontispiece engraved in colors by J. Robert & 5 plates hors-texte including 2 folding by Choffart, Saint-Aubin. Four of them, signed by Choffard (1730-1809), reproduce the illustrations from the previous edition (1752). These are the Mausoleum of Henri II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, by Jacques Sarazin in the church of Saint-Louis of the Jesuits (today reinstalled in the chapel of the château de Chantilly), the tombs of the painter Charles Le Brun and his mother at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet, and Bouchardon's Fountain on rue de Grenelle. A fifth unpublished plate was added for this new edition: engraved by Fessard after Augustin de Saint-Aubin, it represents the Mausoleum of Languet de Gergy by Michel Ange Slodtz at Saint-Sulpice. The first edition contained no engravings.
Full glazed marbled brown calf. Spine with raised bands decorated. Red morocco title label. Upper and lower joints narrowly cracked at foot. Foot of spine and corners restored.
Description of the city of Paris following the division into 20 districts dating from 1701, with the most remarkable monuments, paintings in certain churches, private mansions...

New edition, rare and posthumous, illustrated with two allegorical frontispieces by Renou and engraved by Robert.
Contemporary full marbled calf bindings. Raised band spines decorated with compartmented onion tools and roulettes, red morocco title labels. One lack at head of volume I and a cut at head of volume II (with slight lack). Upper joint of volume I cracked at head, and upper joint of volume II narrowly cracked at tail. 2 corners bumped. Rubbing. Light offsetting from the engraving on the title page of volume I. Margins foxed on half-title and final leaves. Despite the few defects mentioned, a handsome copy with quality binding.
The Lives of Architects and Sculptors are preceded by the Discourse on Architecture (84p.), and the Discourse on Sculpture (36p.). These biographies are classified by nationality; besides the biographical elements proper, the principal buildings realized and books written are also detailed. We count for Italian architects 17 entries, 2 for the English, only one for the Germans, and 23 for the French. The proportion is equivalent for sculptors. Dezallier D'Argenville had previously given an Abridgment of the Lives of Painters, and wanted to rival this work, which Vasari had undertaken during the Renaissance with his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects.