Bernard de FONTENELLE

First edition, illustrated with a captioned and unsigned frontispiece and a title vignette bearing the motto on a banderole: Illuminat et foecundat. Title page in red and black.
Dutch binding in full brown morocco of the period. Spine with raised bands decorated with compartments tooled in blind. Brown morocco title-label tooled in blind. Some rubbing. Half-title and frontispiece partially detached. Handsome copy.
Fontenelle's maxims and thoughts are grouped under different themes: Man, happiness, on literary matters, on different sciences...

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...

Second edition, after the first published in 1684.
Contemporary full blonde calf binding. Spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and fleurons as well as a red title-label. Gilt roulette on edges and headcaps. All edges speckled red. Handsome copy.
The work was written after the publication of the Nouveaux dialogues de mort, and is connected to it only by the literary device of giving voice to the dead, a genre which was very popular in the 17th century. Through a series of letters, Lettres des Vivants aux Morts, Requête des morts désintéressés... Fénelon presents a satirical portrait of the political events of his time.

New edition with some parts in first edition.
Half tan calf binding, spine lacking, front board detached, loose marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.
Work illustrated with engravings in the text.
Some very occasional foxing, handsome interior condition.

Second edition, the first appeared in 1688.
Contemporary full speckled calf binding. Raised bands spine handsomely decorated. Tawny title label. A handsome copy.
In the quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, Fontenelle here takes the side of the latter with numerous mockeries and satires against the defenders of the Ancients.

Superb illustrations etched by Bernard Picart, comprising a frontispiece, 3 title fleurons, 5 figures and more than 170 vignettes and endpieces. One of the rare folio format large paper copies with the text in a frame.
Later (19th century) red morocco by Chatelin. Jansenist spine in six compartments. Double gilt fillet to edges of covers and head- and tail-pieces. Large gilt dentelle frame to pastedowns. All edges gilt.
Binding slightly rubbed, spine of third volume lightly faded.
From the library of H. Houyvet, with his ex libris.