Augustin Courbé

Collected edition, partly first edition, of the plays of Pierre Corneille, printed in Rouen by Laurens Maurry and sold in Paris by Augustin Courbé and Guillaume de Luyne. Illustrated with three allegorical engraved frontispieces and 23 full-page copper-engravings, largely designed by François Chauveau and engraved by artists including Jérôme David, Mathéus and Louis Spirinx.

All three frontispieces are dated 1660. The title-pages and privileges of the first and third volumes are likewise dated 1660, while those of the second volume bear the date 1664. The second volume therefore belongs to the 1664 reissue...

First edition. A handsome allegorical frontispiece by François Chauveau engraved by Regnesson, a title vignette by Picart and various very beautiful engraved ornaments: headpieces, tailpieces, initials...

Contemporary full speckled brown sheep binding. Richly decorated spine with raised bands. Brown morocco title label. Head of spine split. Foot with lack. Joint cracked at foot. Corners very bumped.
Works of Latin poetry by Guez de Balzac, the edition prepared by Gilles Ménage. In appendix a selection of letters.

Fourth collective edition for the first part and third for the second and third parts, published by Corneille himself. Our copy is adorned with the frontispiece of the first two editions (dated 1645), and the portrait of Corneille by Michel Lasne, dated 1644.

Later bindings in full blue morocco, Jansenist spines with five raised bands, endpapers and pastedowns framed with gilt dentelles of marbled paper, all edges gilt, marbled paper slipcases bordered with morocco, bindings signed by Alix.

Rare and beautiful copy elegantly bound.

First edition, illustrated with a frontispiece by Mellan and a portrait of the author by Champaigne engraved by Nanteuil, published posthumously by the author's nephew, Martin de Pinchesne.
Contemporary late 18th-century full mottled calf. Spine with raised bands, richly gilt in a grotesque pattern with two alternating tools. Pink calf lettering-piece. Joints split at the head. Worming at the foot. Two corners bumped. Some rubbing. A few leaves evenly browned, others lightly yellowed. Headcap clumsily restored. Yellow dampstain to the lower outer corner of the first 30 pages.

Fifth edition, published at the same time as the quarto edition. The first edition dates from 1650.

Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Ornamented spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Lower joint partly split. Relatively invisible restorations to headcaps.

The work contains the letters and various poems of the author. Voiture (1597-1648) was throughout his life a gallant and courtier, brilliant in the salons and playing games. His epistolary talent earned him the distinction of making prose fashionable in France for a long time, and his poetry excels in the mannerist and precious tone, even though he knows how to be trivial when necessary. He is an...

Rare first collected edition, illustrated with a fine frontispiece portrait by Nanteuil. Printer’s device on the title page. A handsome headpiece and an ornamental initial decorate the dedicatory epistle to Mademoiselle de Scudéry.
Copy bearing the comital arms of Pierre VI de Villars, Archbishop of Vienne: azure, three golden spurs; on a chief argent, a lion rampant gules.
Contemporary full speckled calf. Spine with raised bands, richly gilt in the grotesque style. Double gilt fillet frame on covers. Expert restorations to headcaps and joints. Rubbing to edges and raised bands. Some scattered foxing. Misnumbered pagination on pp. 246–284 and pp. 136–193, in fact...