Chronicles, memoirs, accounts and contemporary testimonies of great world historical events

First edition.
Contemporary full brown calf binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with 5 fleurons. Red morocco title-label. Triple gilt fillet frame on boards. Rubbing to headcaps, joints, edges and corners. 2 corners slightly bumped. Good copy.
Treatise on the courtier, and the manner of conducting oneself with princes.

Fragility of the courtier's position and utility of diplomacy.

First edition, richly illustrated, of the abridged version of the famous commentaries by the Chevalier de Folard, established by the Count of Chabot. 113 copperplate engravings - sometimes folding (Volume I: 51, volume 2: 22 and volume 3: 40) - representing techniques, battle scenes and war machines of Antiquity; including 4 maps and a plan of Cremona.

Full speckled blonde calf binding. Spine with five raised bands decorated with red morocco title and volume labels and gilt compartments and fleurons; gilt dentelles at foot. All edges red. Two head caps worn, the third slightly rubbed. Some wormholes on the spine of the second volume. Two corners slightly bumped. Numerous scuffing.

First edition, illustrated with 20 figures (battle scenes) at the end of the work. Gothic round typeface.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Tawny morocco title label. Blind title. German binding.
History of the war between Prussia and its allied states and Austria and its allied states. It was Frederick II who triggered the hostilities between the two nations by attempting to seize Silesia, this war took place within the conflict of the Austrian succession.

Third edition. Printed in two columns.

Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Spine with raised bands decorated with small flowers and fleurons. Title-label in snow morocco. Headcaps worn with lacks. Scuffs. 2 corners bumped.

First edition, magnificently illustrated with a frontispiece by Cochin, engraved by Saint-Aubin, a title vignette by the same, 59 large tailpieces and headpieces (designed and engraved by Saint-Aubin) explained and deciphered at the beginning of the work, and 179 figures hors-texte each presenting an engraved stone (engraved by Saint-Aubin). Fine printing on deluxe Holland paper.

Full black morocco-grained shagreen binding ca 1850. Smooth spine with flat raised bands decorated with fillets and roulettes on the bands. Triple-ruled frames on boards with corner fleurons. Marbled edges. Light rubbing to headcaps, corners. Paper lacking to margin of one leaf in volume I. Some leaves browned. Pale angular dampstain on 3 leaves of volume I. Handsome copy, with wide margins. 

Third edition statement (third reprint by the same publisher in December), the first edition having appeared the same year in November.

Contemporary temporary wrappers in bluish paper. Lacking paper on spine, with exposed signatures.

The printed copies sold quickly, with a decree condemning the work to be destroyed and the author accused. The work begins with a plea in favor of press freedom, and is primarily summarized by the demand for unity between the people and the government. The author accuses public authorities, deputies, and police of tyranny, supporting his argument with history and sound common sense.

Rare assemblage of the two parts usually found separated of the Palais. While the Palais de la gloire does not constitute a sequel in the strict sense, it is a second volume envisaged by the author. It remains uncertain why this one appeared with another publisher; perhaps this change, together with the year separating the two first editions, accounts for the constant separation of the works.
Later edition of the Palais de l'honneur, first published in 1663, and first edition of the Palais de la gloire. The first work is illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece by Chauveau and 12 engraved plates of coats of arms.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Spine with raised bands, gilt-tooled. Red morocco lettering-piece. Headcap partially worn away (same at foot). Upper joint cracked and split at head along the first compartment. Corners rubbed. Initial leaves of the second work toned. The 12 plates are unpaginated; moreover, the Palais de la gloire begins at p. 288, without any loss, as in all copies (noting in particular numerous pagination errors).

New edition and first printing of the illustrations: a frontispiece, 62 plates and 241 in-text figures as well as a folding plate on the organization of a Roman camp.
Title page in red and black.

Later 19th-century half-vellum binding. Unlettered smooth spine.