First edition, first issue, with every feature described by Cohen. The illustration includes a frontispiece, three dedication plates, four printed titles in red and black with engraved vignette, thirty vignettes, and a fine tailpiece concluding the final volume. In addition, there are 140 engraved full-page plates (including the frontispiece, numbered 2 to 140), by Boucher, Eisen, Gravelot, Leprince, Monnet, and Moreau, and engraved by Baquoy, Basan, Binet, Duclos, and de Ghendt - 48 in the first volume, 33 in the second, 37 in the third, and 22 in the last. The frontispiece, the fleurons in the first three volumes, and the vignettes were drawn and engraved by Choffart. 

The French translation by Abbé Antoine Banier is printed opposite the Latin text. It also contains historical notes by the translator and a Life of Ovid from his writings under the name M. G***. Our copy is complete, including the 'avis au relieur' bound in volume 4. The plates are printed on a cream thick laid paper, while the text appears on fine laid paper.

Full red glazed morocco contemporary bindings, spines with five raised bands elaborately decorated with gilt compartments and fleurons. The set is well preserved overall, with a few scattered spots and light foxing; some plates are slightly browned. To the upper joint of Vol. 3, a small perforation and minor crack.

A truly magnificent publication, pinnacle of 18th-century illustrated works by the engraver Le Mire. Together with the renowned Fermiers Généraux edition of La Fontaine’s Contes, it is undoubtedly the most elegantly illustrated book of this century. The project includes the finest illustrators and engravers, with mythological subjects serving as particular inspiration. Ovid’s timeless masterpiece comprises 246 fables of metamorphoses, from Chaos to the transformation of Julius Caesar into a star, providing a comprehensive repository of Greco-Roman mythology and an inexhaustible iconographic resource for the history of art.

A handsome and exceedingly rare first issue, bound in contemporary red morocco.

Armorial ex-libris of William Vincens Bouguereau (son of the painter), a card of the Baron de Noirmont.

Cette magnifique publication, fleuron des grands ouvrages illustrés du XVIII^e est l’œuvre du graveur Le Mire. Avec la célèbre édition des Fermiers Généraux des Contes de La Fontaine, c’est sans conteste l’ouvrage le plus galamment illustré du XVIII^e siècle. Les plus grands illustrateurs du siècle ont collaboré à l’entreprise ainsi que les meilleurs graveurs. Les sujets mythologiques ont particulièrement inspiré les artistes. L’immortel chef-d’œuvre d’Ovide, qui a traversé toutes les époques avec le même succès, contient 246 fables sur les métamorphoses, assemblées chronologiquement depuis le Chaos jusqu’à la transformation en étoile de Jules César, véritable mémoire de la mythologie gréco-romaine, répertoire iconologique inépuisable pour l’histoire de l’art.

Superbe et très rare exemplaire, en premier tirage, établi en maroquin rouge de l’époque.

Ex-libris aux armes du XIXe de William Vincens Bouguereau, fils du peintre. Une carte du Baron de  Noirmont.