Les oeuvres de Monsieur de Moliere

New collected edition, following the first complete edition published in 1682. It is illustrated with a portrait and 33 plates (one frontispiece to each play) by Punt; these captioned plates are reductions of Boucher's quarto plates, which first appeared in the celebrated deluxe edition of 1734. Punt's charming plates are dated 1738 or 1739. Title pages printed in red and black.

This edition appears to be the first to use the reduced Boucher plates. It also follows the famous quarto edition by only a year, and is rather well printed. These reduced plates were reused in several later editions, notably that of 1765, which includes Voltaire's notes. The Life of Molière runs to some hundred pages, printed in small type. This edition contains both versions of La Princesse d'Élide, one of which, entirely in verse, was completed by another author. Various extracts from authors who wrote on Molière are placed at the end of the fourth volume. This is one of the few editions, and perhaps the only one, in 4 volumes rather than 6 or, more commonly, 8; this is due in part to the thinner paper used and to the typography.
Contemporary full glazed mottled calf. Spines with raised bands, richly decorated, central spider's web tool, gilt roll at tail, head and around the volume labels. Red morocco title labels, brown morocco volume labels. Head cap of volume III worn. One corner of volume III bumped. Some rubbing. Good paper, very fresh throughout. A handsome copy.