L'antiquité expliquée, et représentée en figures

First edition comprising the first 10 volumes published in 1719 and the five volumes of supplements subsequently published in 1724, all complete with plates (see Cohen 731-732).

The illustration, as remarkable as it is abundant, comprises a magnificent frontispiece signed by Sébastien Le Clerc representing the authors of Antiquity in front of the forecourt of a grandiose monument, skillfully put into perspective; a portrait of the dedicatee, Count Victor-Marie d'Estrées, painted by Nicolas de Largillierre and etched by Jean Audran; an etched ornamental head piece and initial with the dedicatee's arms; 16 etched title vignettes; historiated head pieces on copper and wood, culs-de-lampe engraved on wood, and 1394 insert places, including 4 folding and 256 double page. Partly rubricated title pages. The plate numbered cxliv of Volume IV has been replaced with an unnumbered plate and the plate xiv of Supplement II is absent as expected.
French-Latin bilingual edition.
Full contemporary calf, spine in six compartments, red morocco title piece and green morocco volume labels, panels between the compartments richly decorated with gilt fleurons, double blind tooling on the plates, gilt roll tooling on the leading edges, silk bookmark, leading edges rubbed, chaffed patches and small pieces missing due to worming on the plates, spine-ends, corners and leading edges.

The work is a symbol of antiquarian historiography at its most brilliant; the monumental and undeniably prolific enterprise on classical Antiquity made Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741) the undisputed father of museography and scientific archaeology. His work, which reveals both the social and cultural as well as the artistic aspects of ancient civilizations, remains absolutely essential to Antiquity's historical approach. To achieve its goal of precisely identifying, dating and locating the statues and other objects of art depicted, Montfaucon formally analyses the contours and lines of more than 40,000 objects.

In his preface, Montfaucon explains his approach: “My maxim is to say about each thing in particular only what we can know for sure or very likely”. Thus he studies secular Antiquity only from its tangible remains, without reference to sacred history, allowing for objects and ideas to be considered as civilizations had produced them. From publication, L'Antiquité expliquée was also a huge editorial success; as early as 30 November 1719, Dom Claude de Vic wrote to a correspondent: “...the price of this work rises like the shares that are taken on the East India Company”.

Much more than a reference or a classic, L'Antiquité expliquée is a Bible.

Count Seguin de Broin's printed ex-libris on the paste-down endpapers of the volumes (gules coat of arms with a passing gold adder, an azure chief with three silver stars), etched by Louis Gabriel Monnier in 1764. These are likely the arms of Edme Seguin de Broin (1695-1783), successively Receiver of taxes of the bailiwick of Nuits, Receiver of spices at the Dijon Chamber of Accounts, Secretary to the King at the Dijon Parliament, and Lord of Broin and Bonnencontre, at the origin of the Seguin de Broin dynasty, in Dijon.

Ex-libris printed with the arms of the Baron de Nervo on the paste-down endpapers of the volumes. This precious library, formed by Admiral Olympe-Christophe, first Baron de Nervo (1765-1835), was later greatly enriched by his great-grandson, the bibliophile Jean de Nervo (1881-1934), who assembled a collection of 20,000 volumes of choice in his Château de Montmarie, in Auvergne.