First edition. Rare. Engraved title page with printer’s vignette (a beehive and bees). A fine edition, handsomely printed on quality laid paper. The copy is authenticated by the author’s original signature.
The copy bears a preliminary page preceding the half-title for a prize, repeating the same motto found on the binding. The book appears to have been presented by the University or School of Harlem to Bernardo Van Laar in 1799 as a first prize in letters, and seems signed by several professors.
Contemporary full mottled calf binding. Emblematic binding (Athena – or Virtue? – with her attributes reading a book beneath a tree, on her shield: a sword surmounted by the Maltese cross, flanked by four stars) with the motto Vicit Vim Virtus gilt-stamped on the boards. Spine with raised bands, richly decorated with intertwined foliage and floral tools. Broad gilt frame on the covers. Red morocco label. Traces of ties. Rubbing to the spine, otherwise a handsome copy.
With a bookseller’s label (A. Durand, Paris), a stamp from the diocesan library of Valence, and a stamp of E. T. Hannion, chaplain at the Imperial Lycée of Bar-Le-Duc.
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