Germain-François Poullain de SAINT-FOIX

First collected edition. One portrait frontispiece and 2 engravings by Marillier in the second volume (one of these engravings is often missing). Half-titles and titles in red and black.
Full blonde sheep binding, slightly later. Smooth spine decorated with compartments and rolls. Red morocco title label, and black morocco volume label with rolls. Some corners slightly bumped. A thin tear at head of volume I. Handsome copy.
The posthumous edition, two years after the author's death, is distributed as follows: Volumes I and II: Theatre and the Turkish Letters; Volumes III, IV, and V: Historical Essays on Paris; Volume VI: History of the Order of the Holy Spirit (of which Saint-Foix...

First French edition of the Essay on Man translated by Etienne de Silhouette, and second edition of the Turkish Letters first published in 1730, by the same publisher in Cologne.
Modern full parchment paper boards binding. Black sheep title label.
Pope's Essay on Man, a philosophical poem, is translated in prose, and is preceded by a long preface by the translator. In the Turkish Letters, Saint-Foix was inspired by Montesquieu's model (who himself was inspired by Manara's Chinese Spy model), but while the Letters follow the same principle, they do not contain, as in Montesquieu, the lengthy descriptions; they are entirely devoted to narrative and to the comparison of manners and...

First edition, illustrated with a lithographic portrait of the author as frontispiece.
Half emerald green shagreen bindings, mid-19th century. Spine with raised bands decorated with fillets. Rubbing to headcaps and edges. Good copies. The work is a sequel to the Essais sur Paris by Poullain de Saint-Foix published nearly half a century earlier. It was provided by Poullain de Saint-Foix's own nephew. Following the same model, it is a walk through the streets of Paris that serves as the guiding thread to recount various anecdotes and sketch portraits of historical figures. "I will focus especially on the anecdotes that my uncle could not relate... I have worked from the notes I found in...

Stated third edition. It should be noted that the 6th and 7th volumes which will appear in 1777 and which will be added to the collection do not concern Les essais sur Paris, since they will contain Les Lettres turques, and various pieces. At the end of volume 5 has been added: Lettre de M. de Saintfoix au sujet de l'homme au masque de fer, in which he studies and seems to resolve from everything that has been written on the subject this famous affair.
Near-contemporary half brown sheep bindings. Smooth spines decorated with 2 fleurons and 2 grotesque compartments. Black calf title and volume labels. Upper joint cracked at foot of volume 1. Lacks to joints at foot of volume II...