Essai sur l'homme [Ensemble] Lettres turques

First French edition of the Essay on Man translated by Etienne de Silhouette, and second edition of the Turkish Letters first published in 1730, by the same publisher in Cologne.
Modern full parchment paper boards binding. Black sheep title label.
Pope's Essay on Man, a philosophical poem, is translated in prose, and is preceded by a long preface by the translator. In the Turkish Letters, Saint-Foix was inspired by Montesquieu's model (who himself was inspired by Manara's Chinese Spy model), but while the Letters follow the same principle, they do not contain, as in Montesquieu, the lengthy descriptions; they are entirely devoted to narrative and to the comparison of manners and customs among the French and the Turks.