VOLTAIRE

The ‘Kehl edition’, the most renowned edition of Voltaire's works, illustrated and published on deluxe paper. It was printed on five different types of paper, and only the deluxe editions, such as ours on laid paper, feature engravings. These are naturally the most sought-after and rarest copies.

Binding in full painted sheep decorated with a “honeycomb” motif, smooth spine tooled with gilt fleurons, fillets and compartments, light beige calf lettering and volume pieces, gilt chain-roll border on covers, marbled endpapers, gilt roll on edges, all edges marbled, contemporary binding. Two volumes (nos. 50 and 70) with slight variations in gilt tools on the spines and...

First edition displaying all the distinctive features of its publication: it presents no capital letters except at the beginning of paragraphs and it is the very first work to have been printed with Voltaire's spelling. Our copy is complete with its errata leaf, which is often missing.
Later bindings (19th century) in full red morocco, Jansenist spines with five raised bands, dates and places gilt at foot, boards struck at center with large gilt typographical fleurons, double gilt fillets on leading edges and headcaps, pastedowns lined with blue morocco presenting a wide gilt decorative border, monogrammed bookplates mounted on the pastedowns of each volume, following endpapers of...

First edition, one of 30 numbered copies on pur fil, the only copies on deluxe paper.

Minor, insignificant foxing to some edges, a handsome copy.

First edition (cf. Quérard II, 200. Perrod, 711).

Contemporary marbled fawn calf, spine with five raised bands gilt with gilt fillets, gilt compartments decorated with floral tools, gilt rolls to the headcaps partly rubbed, covers framed with a double blind-tooled fillet, some surface wear and losses to the boards, gilt fillet to the turn-ins, worn corners, red edges.

The sole, uncommon edition of this defence of the serfs of the Abbey of Saint-Claude in their dispute with their lord.

Christin (1744–1799) acted as their counsel before the Parlement of Besançon.

Despite his intervention (and that of Voltaire – see below), the sixteen canons of Saint-Claude...

Exceptional manuscript bearing witness to Voltaire's obsessive care in publishing his works and his utter contempt for the press. 
A very rare letter entirely in Voltaire's own hand, initialed with an angered curvilinear penstroke, 13 lines written in black, to his Geneva publisher Gabriel Cramer who promoted often clandestinely the diffusion of the philosopher's writings and ideas.
Voltaire sends this message to Cramer, horrified by an error in the proofs of his History of the Russian Empire (1759-1763); he foresees the scathing criticism of journalists, dubbed "folliculars" in his celebrated Candide, published...