La Compagnie des libraires

New quarto edition, revised and corrected by the author, with numerous decorated headpieces, initials and tailpieces.

Full polished brown calf, spine in six compartments with five raised bands richly gilt-tooled, red morocco lettering-piece, triple blind fillet border to boards, double gilt fillet to board edges, red edges, marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Light scratches and scuffing to boards, corners slightly bumped, otherwise a very fine copy.

Paper flaw causing marginal tears on pp. 49, 571 and 595, light scattered foxing affecting a few gatherings towards the end of the volume, minor wormhole to lower corner of pp. 253 onwards, ending in a charming emoji.

New edition after the first, very rare, published in 1670. Huet's Treatise on the Origin of Novels, in the form of a letter to Segrais, appears at the end of the first part of Zaïde.

Armorial copy of Charlotte Emilie Le Fèvre de Caumartin de La cour de Balleroy, daughter of Louis-François Le Fèvre de Caumartin, lord of Boissy, and wife of the Marquis de la Cour de Balleroy. Feminine arms are rare and sought after, as few women formed libraries with their coat of arms. The Marquise de Balleroy, who died in 1749, settled in Normandy, and maintained an intense correspondence with the highest nobility from which she descended.

Full speckled brown calf bindings. Raised band spines with decorative tooling. Morocco title labels in tan, volume labels in speckled brown calf. Headcap of volume II split. A brown stain in corner of first 10 leaves of volume I, gradually fading, this stain recurring later, spreading then disappearing. A browner area at edge of right corner of volume I, on upper board. Despite some flaws, a handsome copy.

Famous anthology of poetry, known as the Recueil de Barbin because the notices it contains are thought to have been composed by François Barbin, son of the bookseller who first printed it in 1692. This precious collection was the first to grant an important place to Medieval poets, which was a great novelty at the time.
Near-contemporary bindings (circa 1810) in full tawny calf. Smooth spines richly decorated with compartments and gilt fillets, as well as emerald morocco title and volume labels. Covers framed with multiple gilt dentelles and roulettes. Gilt fillet highlighting the edges and headcaps. Gilt roulette framing the pastedowns. All edges gilt.
One corner bumped, light rubbing to the binding.
Attractive copy in decorative early 19th-century binding.

New edition. The privilege being dated 1697, it is not known whether this new edition differs from the one published by Barbin in 1693, Barbin himself being part of the Compagnie des libraires.
Contemporary full glazed brown sheep binding. Richly decorated spine with raised bands. Beige morocco title and volume labels. Head of volume I slightly worn, that of volume V split. Tail caps of volumes I and IV partly lacking. Wormholes on the spines of volumes IV and V. Some gatherings yellowed. Despite the mentioned defects, a copy with an attractive appearance.
Charles Marguetel de Saint-Denis, seigneur de Saint-Évremond (1614-1703), was a moralist and libertine critic, whose rigor and critical independence announced the Enlightenment philosophers, and was perhaps the first author to make criticism a profession. He paid little attention to his writings which circulated mainly in manuscript during his lifetime. This edition, which collects various pieces by the author, including numerous letters, critiques, historical research and poetry, is due to the abbé de Raguenet, who completed the collection with maxims by La Rochefoucauld (pp. 297-326 Vol. IV), a piece by La Fontaine, a letter by Corneille... The literary success of Saint-Évremond led writers to attribute numerous works to him, such as these maxims by La Rochefoucauld, substantially different from recent editions by the same author.

New edition, "more beautiful and more complete than that of 1725" (Brunet).
Half green sheep binding, nineteenth century. Smooth spines decorated with triple gilt fillets, gilt initials at foot. Some surface wear, edges and corners rubbed.
An author now forgotten, Boursault held an important place in the theatrical life of his time. He even took an active part in the quarrels with Molière and Boileau. Some of his comedies enjoyed great success, and one of his tragedies was compared by Corneille himself to those of Racine; but all his plays suffer from a lack of dramaturgy, they are juxtaposed scenes, without staging.

New edition, after the original published in 1699. The second part is announced by a half-title.
Contemporary speckled brown calf binding. Richly decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Various rubbing. Good copy.
Renusson devoted several works to family law including this treatise on dower rights, which concerns the property that a husband will leave to his wife in case of death. We distinguish customary law, thus fixed by custom, and contractual law, that is to say fixed by contract. Dower is a fundamental element of marriage law under the Ancien Régime.

First edition.
Contemporary glazed purple calf binding. Spine with raised bands decorated. Red morocco title label. Triple fillet frame on covers. Beginning of crack to lower joint at head. A slight lack to headcap. Handsome copy despite the noted defects.
These reflections on the customs and government of the Greeks is in fact an enlargement and deepening of a book published earlier (1749): Observations on the Greeks. Mably thus justifies this updated work in his preface: "Il m'arrive souvent aujourd'hui de louer ce que j'ai blâmé dans mes premières Observations, & de blâmer les mêmes choses que j'ai louées; c'est qu'il y a eu un temps où je regardois de certaines maximes sur la grandeur, la puissance & la fortune des états, comme autant de vérités incontestables; & qu'après quinze ans de méditations sur les mêmes objets, je suis parvenu à ne les voir que comme des erreurs que nos passions & l'habitude ont consacrées" ["It often happens today that I praise what I blamed in my first Observations, and blame the same things I praised; it is because there was a time when I regarded certain maxims about the greatness, power and fortune of states as so many incontestable truths; and after fifteen years of meditation on the same subjects, I have come to see them only as errors that our passions and habit have sanctified"].