Guillaume Desprez III (actif 1741-1790)

First edition of this important work dealing notably with neurosurgery.
Contemporary binding in full marbled sheep, spine with five raised bands decorated with gilt compartments and fleurons as well as a brown morocco title-label, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, all edges red. Headcap torn with small lacks at head, some worming to joints, corners bumped and rubbed.
Morand describes in the first part several interventions performed by him including the very first operation of a brain abscess by mastoid trepanation. Other procedures are related in the work: thigh amputation, stone operation and various other urological procedures, surgery following gunshot wounds...

First edition. Rare. Absent from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and from French and English catalogues.
Contemporary full calf binding, spine in five compartments decorated with gilt compartments and fleurons. Small lacks to head of spine and another, superficial and equally small, at foot, boards with blind fillet border, gilt roll on edges, some inevitable traces of wear to these, red edges.

Second edition following the first edition of 1758.
Half red morocco binding with straight grain, mid-19th century. Smooth spine decorated with fleurons with title along spine and gilt fillet border. Light rubbing to headcaps. Handsome copy.
This treatise first appeared in 1758 between the death of Benedict XIV and the election of his successor Carlo Rezzonico under the name Clement XIII, this second edition appeared after the death of Clement XIII in 1769. The final leaf reproduces the election bulletin.
Engraved bookplate: Bibliothèque de Monsieur le Comte Godefroy de Montgrand.

Eighth edition statement.
Later full blonde sheep binding with tree calf pattern (ca 1790). Smooth spine decorated with scattered ornaments, Greek key patterns, eye in a sun motif, various roulettes. Pink morocco title label. Headcap and tailcap repaired, with slight lacks. Spine slightly faded. 3 corners slightly bumped.
A famous and important work in the history of thought, often called "The Logic of Port-Royal", this represents the logical approach according to Jansenism, a Cartesian and Pascalian approach to reason, associating reason with mathematical reasoning viewed as an ideal of thought. The author was a great intellectual figure of the 17th century, not only as a...