Nice copy.
Illustrated edition with 16 folding plates, 8 per volume.
Contemporary full marbled brown calf bindings. Raised band spines with gilt ornaments. Red morocco title-labels, and black wax volume labels. Small lack to head of volume I. One corner slightly bumped. Rubbing. Last errata leaf frayed at margin. Good copies.
Notable articles to be retained in each of the mentioned sections include the following: On beam resistance by M. Parent. On conchoids in general by M. de La Hire. Observations on coral analysis by M. Geoffroy. Reflections on magnetic variations by M. Houssaye. General method for finding an infinity of new curved lines by M. Réaumur. Physical explanation of the vertical and natural direction of plants by M. de La Hire. Method for describing large arcs of conic sections, by M. de La Hire. Conjectures on the position of the island of Meroë, by M. Delisle. Numerous astronomical observations by Cassini, Maraldi...
New edition. Printer's device on title page. Colophon: Excudebat Robertus STephanus Parisiis, Ann. M. D. XXXIII. octavo cal. sept.
Full brown marbled sheep binding ca 1920, pastiche of a Renaissance binding, signed L. P. Thébaut. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 small fleurons. Central roundel on covers, and thick gilt frame. Tear with loss at foot. Black stain at head and foot. Corners rubbed. Some foxing. Joints slightly cracked. Good copy.
Collection of three texts by Roman writers: The illustrated lives by Pliny the Younger, which are short biographies of famous men (Pompey, Hannibal, Scipio...); Suetonius's book on grammarians and rhetoricians is the last part of Lives of Illustrious Men (not completely transmitted to us), and finally, the famous book of prodigies by Julius Obsequens which relates the auguries and strange and marvelous events that occurred in Rome between 249 BC and 12 AD. This fragmentary work was often published following other ancient texts.
Several editions bringing together these texts can be found, with certain variants, notably for Pliny's works; the two other works by Suetonius and Obsequens being often coupled with Pliny's correspondence.
The rare first edition, illustrated with a title-frontispiece and 22 plates after paintings by Eustache Le Sueur and engraved by François Chauveau. Captions of the engravings in two columns, one verse in Latin, with its translation alongside. Brunet III, 1020.
Half chocolate-brown glazed shagreen binding circa 1860 with corners, signed L. Fixon at the bottom of the last leaf. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Engraved title, as well as the initials S. D. Tears with lacks to the lower board. Cut to one corner of the lower board and corner slightly bumped. Some rubbing. Fine copy, very fresh.
Le Sueur painted between 1645 and 1648 the cycle of the life of Saint Bruno, a set of 22 canvases commissioned to adorn the cloister of the Charterhouse of Paris. Le Sueur asserted his own style inherited from Poussin's classicism and his master Simon Vouet. These canvases were later purchased by Louis XVI in 1776. They are now in the Louvre. François Chauveau is one of the most illustrious French engravers of the 17th century, and one of the 4 engravers cited by Charles Perrault in his Hommes illustres, and one of the principal representatives of the etching technique. In his Voyage pittoresque de Paris, Dezallier D'Argenville thus describes the cloister of the Charterhouse: "Le petit cloître mérite une attention particulière. Le Raphaël français Eustache Le Sueur y a représenté en vingt-deux tableaux peints sur bois les principales circonstances de la vie de S. Bruno [...] Ce cloître a été gravé par François Chauveau d'une manière qui rend assez bien le caractère de Le Sueur." ["The small cloister deserves particular attention. The French Raphael Eustache Le Sueur has represented there in twenty-two paintings on wood the principal circumstances of the life of St. Bruno [...] This cloister has been engraved by François Chauveau in a manner that renders quite well the character of Le Sueur."]
Rare first edition.
Contemporary full tree calf bindings. Smooth spines decorated with two gilt tools and two grotesque panels. Red morocco title labels. Black wax volume labels, heavily rubbed and faded. Head- and tailcaps and the upper and lower joints and corners very discreetly restored. A scratch on one board. A handsome, clean copy.
True first edition, including on the verso of the title page the announcement of the work The Memoirs of Montgaillard on the Conspiracy of Pichegru, which would become, by order of the newly crowned Emperor: Memoirs Concerning the Treason of Pichegru. The publisher would be forced to withdraw the announcement of these works and thus to reprint the title page of Méhée de la Touche.
Original pamphlet, in gray paper wrappers. Unlettered spine. Lack at head and upper joint open for 5 cm. Corners and edges folded. Tear with small damage to text on leaf N1. Uncut copy, with conjugate leaves (except the first 15 pages).