Marc-Michel Rey

Counterfeit edition published only one year after the octavo and duodecimo first editions. This copy in the same format as the octavo first edition that was corrected by Rousseau.

Contemporary full calf, smooth spine decorated with five gilt fleuron tools, red morocco lettering-piece, single fillet ruled in blind to boards, gilt fillet to board edges, red edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns.

Head of spine missing, usual wear to joints with slight splitting in four places, minor rubbing to boards, corners bumped.

Minute stain to p. 157.

Rare pirated edition by Jean-Baptiste Reguillat in Lyon. The second text is the response addressed by Rousseau to the archbishop of Paris for his attack on Emile; this edition is a counterfeit of the original, probably Parisian, and would have been orchestrated by Rousseau himself.
Contemporary full speckled sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Beige morocco title label. A fragment missing at head, and at joints at head. Upper joint cracked at tail. Relatively fresh overall.
"The Réguilliat edition was one of the important milestones in the editorial history of this great text" writes Dominique Varry, book historian, in Histoire et civilisation du livre, "Un Lyonnais pris en flagrant délit d'impression du Contrat social". In this study, the historian recounts: On the date of September 23, 1762, Bachaumont's Mémoires secrets announced that "A certain Deville, bookseller of Lyon, has just been arrested and taken to Pierre-Encyse. An edition he was making of this book was found at his premises. The information is both accurate and false. A printer-bookseller was indeed arrested in flagrante delicto printing the Contrat social on the previous August 18, but there was an error regarding the person. It was not one of the three Deville brothers, who had gone bankrupt in 1748, but Jean-Baptiste Réguillat.

First French illustrated edition with 13 attractive unsigned figures. Title pages in red and black. Sir Charles Morell is the pseudonym of James Ridley. The first English edition dates from 1764, here translated by Robinet.
Contemporary full brown marbled and glazed calf bindings. Spines with raised bands, decorated. Red morocco title and volume labels. Headcap of volume I with loss. Restorations at head of volumes II and III, likewise at tail of volume I. Joint of volume II split at tail. A filled loss along the upper joint of volume II. Upper joint of volume III split at tail. Fresh copy overall with some yellowed leaves. The plates of volume III have been bound in volume II and vice versa.
Bookplate: from the library of M. de Beaumont.
Attributed to Imam Horam (whose life occupies the preliminary pages) and supposedly translated by the ambassador to Bombay Charles Morell, these tales inspired by the structure of the Arabian Nights are the work of James Ridley's imagination, whose notoriety and popular success were significant in England. Published at the beginning of the 18th century in Galland's translation, the Arabian Nights generated in Europe an important literature tinged with fantasy, oneirism and eroticism.

First collected edition but not authorized by the author. It contains 25 plates including 3 frontispieces and several with geometry diagrams. Handsome edition, elegantly composed and printed, but it contains four texts that are not by the author: Le Code de la Nature by Morelly, Les Principes de Philosophie Morale by Étienne Beaumont, La Justification de Plusieurs Articles de l'Encyclopédie by Abbé Monlinot, and Lettre au P. Berthier sur le Matérialisme by Abbé Coyer. Originally, Marc-Michel Rey had an editorial project with Diderot for his works, but this project was aborted. Multiple paginations, each text having its own pagination and table of contents.
Contemporary full marbled and glazed blond calf binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label, beige morocco volume labels. Traces of rubbing. A cut at head of volume I. Small lack at head of volume III. A tear with lack in the last compartment of volume IV. A hole along the lower joint of volume V. On volume VI, on the lower joint, worming over 1cm. Relatively fresh set, the first 30 pages of volume V yellowed. Leaf 165 of volume IV badly cut, with a small lack to lower margin. Despite slight defects, handsome copy.
Vol. 1: Essai sur le mérite et la vertu, le Code de la nature. Vol. 2: Lettre sur les sourds et muets, Lettre sur les Aveugles. Vol. 3: Le Père de famille (et De la poésie dramatique) Vol. 4: Le Fils naturel. Vol. 5: Les Bijoux indiscrets. Vol. 6: Traité du Beau, Du beau absolu, De la philosophie des chinois, Science subséquente, Acoustique, Mémoires sur différents sujets de mathématiques.

First edition.
Contemporary full glazed brown calf binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 attractive fleurons with stars at the corners. Beige morocco title label. Margins of the title page browned, as well as the second leaf. Upper margin of the blank leaf before the title torn and missing. Handsome copy, elegantly bound.
A much more complete biography than that published in Latin by Charles Pascal in 1584. Before becoming the author of the Quatrains, Pibrac was one of the most skillful negotiators of his time. Having returned to France after serving as ambassador to the Council of Trent and then to Poland, he was appointed Chancellor to the Queen of Navarre. It was then that he dared to write her a letter which was interpreted by Queen Margot as an impertinent declaration of love. This affair caused a great stir and Pibrac attempted to justify himself with skill. Contemporary authors took sides for or against him; the author of this biography provides evidence of Pibrac's passion. The work reproduces, following his biography, the love letters written to a mistress less resistant than the queen, as well as the text of the famous Quatrains, here restored to the original version, as the editors of 1897 and 1720 had transcribed them into modern French.

New edition, after the first published in 1758.
Full glazed blonde sheep binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 4 fleurons in compartments; roulette at foot. Red morocco title label. Upper joint cracked. Corners slightly bumped. Headcap amateurishly restored.
This play, Diderot's second published work, after Le Fils naturel in 1757 (for which he was accused of plagiarizing Goldoni) and which would not be performed until 1761, marks a remarkable turning point in the history of theater. Advocating a natural and realistic plot, based on contemporary characters, Diderot, developing his ideas in the essay that follows the play, invents bourgeois drama and definitively disrupts traditional dramaturgy.

Second edition, after the original published in 1764.
Contemporary full calf binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with fleurons in compartments. Red morocco title label, and beige morocco volume label. Head of volume I worn. A lack to the second compartment of the second volume. Joints of volume II split at foot. Some surface abrasions to the boards.
Bonnet (1720-1793) is considered one of the fathers of modern biology (he was the first to use the term Evolution in biology), both for his experimental research and his philosophy which had a profound influence on naturalists. It was when he was struck with blindness that he turned to theory. This work takes up the first eight chapters of the "Considérations sur les corps organisés," published in 1762, where Bonnet expounds his theory on the preexistence of germs. Bonnet moreover reports numerous observations of natural history.