Pierre Marteau (1660 - 1932)

First edition, under initials L.M.P. for "le ministre prisonnier". Title page with sphere.
Contemporary full marbled brown sheep binding. Spine with raised bands, decorated. Brown sheep title-label. Slight lack at foot. One corner slightly bumped. Good copy, perfectly fresh.
In his memoirs written in Holland where he found refuge, Wicquefort, diplomat and intellectual, takes up his pen to defend himself against accusations of high treason which earned him a sentence of life imprisonment. Famous diplomat, first in the service of Mazarin, then imprisoned for a writing on the relations of young Louis XIV with Mazarin's niece, he finds refuge in Holland where he will inform France of...

Edition with the same date as the original, and at the same address, but which does not possess the same collation. Furthermore, volume I does not contain the fleuron found on the original, although it appears on the title page of the second volume; the typographical material is substantially different for the title pages. The first volume contains 403pp. versus 501pp. for the original, the second has only 493pp. versus 132pp. and 808pp for the second volume of the original. There also exists a version in 3 volumes at Pierre Marteau's address on the same date. These differences between the three editions are not elucidated.
Full green shagreen bindings ca 1850 signed by Bruyère. Spine...

Bilingual edition in Italian with the French text en regard, and illustrated with a frontispiece and five Dutch plates signed Bloote (particularly fine and beautiful), certainly executed by Abraham Blooteling, famous Dutch draftsman and engraver. Title page with sphere device.
Full black morocco binding ca. 1860. Spine with raised bands in Jansenist style with blind-ruled frame. Triple blind fillet frame on boards. Rich interior border. Gilt edges. Very handsome copy, perfectly executed in an unsigned master binding.
Guarini was a diplomat and writer, his most famous work being this play published under the original title Il Pastor fido, a tragi-comic pastoral written in...

First edition, printed by the Elsevier press. 4 title pages with the sphere, two of which for L'Ambassade en Suisse.
Contemporary full brown speckled sheep binding. Spine with raised bands, decorated. Brown morocco title and volume labels, decorated with roll tools. A slight lack to the joint at the head of each volume. Good copy.
Important diplomatic relations by one who was a great lord and great military man concerning the Valtellina affair with Spain and Switzerland, and that of the projected marriage of the king's sister and the Prince of Wales in England. A collection of articles and letters that allow one to realistically follow the progress of diplomatic missions (a...

First edition, rare. It was printed in Leiden by the heirs and widow of Jean Elzevier. It should be noted that another edition with the same date published by Pierre Marteau has a different collation: (2) 501pp. and (2) 493pp. and therefore seems to contain less text than the one we present; this is an unexplained curiosity.
Bound in contemporary marbled blonde sheep. Spine with raised bands decorated with compartmentalized fleurons. Red morocco title label and black morocco volume label. Head of volume 1 partially split; a lack at the head of volume 2 and one at the tail. A 1.5cm lack along the upper joint (bookworm damage). Corners mostly bumped. Volume I slightly larger by 0.5cm than...

New edition.
Copy with the arms of Armand Joseph Le Lièvre de la Grange stamped in blind, Marquis de Fourilles et de la Grange; azure a chevron or, accompanied in chief by two roses argent and in base an eagle displayed with lowered wings of the same.
Contemporary full blonde grained sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated. Red morocco title-label. A tear with loss to the lower joint at head. Split to the lower joint at tail.
Gaston-Jean-Baptiste de Roquelaure, from an illustrious Gascon family, field marshal to the king, wounded at the siege of Bordeaux, saw his estate of Roquelaure elevated to a duchy. He was short and ugly and said of himself: "I have been...

New and rare edition, illustrated with 15 figures by Harrewyn, including 13 portraits. Title page of volume I in red and black. All first editions of this work were published by Marteau (Louis Elsevier); the true address of this one is unknown.
This edition, after consulting copies recorded in libraries, does not always contain the figures, and when it does contain them (the British Library copy), only 13 are counted, without the two figures of the clement priest, and the one integrated in Les Sorcelleries de Henry de Valois. Furthermore, the notice to the binder shows only 12 portraits. All these figures are contained in volume I, volume II being occupied by the remarks of Duchat and...

New edition, after the original of 1702 published by the same publisher. Illustrated with four folding maps including one of Italy with its different kingdoms and republics.
Contemporary full calf binding. Raised bands spine decorated. Red morocco title-label. A slight lack at head. Split to upper joint at foot. A tear to the Mantua map. Rubbing. Fairly good copy.
The Italian war constitutes an excellent narrative, teeming with picturesque details; it begins in a most romantic manner before undertaking to recount the battles of Piedmont, Milan and Turin, and the political intrigues between Spain, France, the Duke of Savoy and the duchies of Italy. The work draws indeed from two...

First French edition of the Essay on Man translated by Etienne de Silhouette, and second edition of the Turkish Letters first published in 1730, by the same publisher in Cologne.
Modern full parchment paper boards binding. Black sheep title label.
Pope's Essay on Man, a philosophical poem, is translated in prose, and is preceded by a long preface by the translator. In the Turkish Letters, Saint-Foix was inspired by Montesquieu's model (who himself was inspired by Manara's Chinese Spy model), but while the Letters follow the same principle, they do not contain, as in Montesquieu, the lengthy descriptions; they are entirely devoted to narrative and to the comparison of manners and...