History

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.

First edition.

Contemporary full blonde calf binding with marbled decoration. Decorated spine with raised bands. Red morocco title label. Head worn. 2 corners slightly bumped. Headcaps rubbed. A reasonably good copy.
This police treatise is undoubtedly the best testimony one can find on the customs and daily life of the French in the 18th century. It shows what was done regarding wolves or masterless dogs, plague, games in fairs and markets, latrines... Compared to the famous police treatise by Delamare, which the author mentions in his preface, this present treatise has a more practical aim, which is why it has been put in dictionary form. It contains not only all the edicts relating to a question but also precious commentaries by the author. Colbert defined police in these terms in an ordinance of 1669: 'Police consists in ensuring public peace and that of individuals, in procuring abundance and in making each person live according to their condition'.

Label: Librairie Raymond Clavreuil.

NB: This work is available at the bookshop on request within 48 hours.