First editions and first illustrated editions of literature classics from 15th to 18th century in contemporary bindings

Some of these plays are first editions. Only the last play is by Lemercier. The work brings together the author's best plays, notably Le Philinte de Molière, a Revolutionary play which had considerable success.
Contemporary full sheep binding. Smooth spine with fleurons and roulettes. Red morocco title label. Roulette frame on boards. 2 corners slightly bumped. A lack of leather at the top of the upper joint. Rubbing to joints, edges.
Fabre d'Églantine (1750-1794) was a strange character, first an itinerant actor then writer of comedies, he became Danton's secretary then deputy to the Convention, to end up guillotined in 1794 (for forgery and use of forgeries), alongside Danton whom he had principally contributed to having executed.

First edition? A similar edition was published on the same date by the same publisher, but in a slightly larger format, with different collation, different title ornament and without the red and black title page. This edition may be a piracy. A frontispiece depicting Harlequin. Uncommon.
Half vellum binding, later. Smooth spine with title in red ink.
Arlequiniana, which remains a literary curiosity, belongs to a predominant genre of French literature, emerging at the end of the 17th century and flourishing in the first half of the 18th century; these collections of witticisms or amusing stories or Ana whose birth can be traced to the Menagiana in 1693. This genre has the particularity of featuring its own author and dialoguing with its reader, seeming to have no other purpose than to entertain while seeking to educate, for in this century of censorship, literature created this apparently light but satirical and critical mode of society and morals. Charles Cotolondi wrote several works in this field, notably the Evremonmania. Harlequin, thanks to the famous Théâtre de la Foire in Paris had become very famous and represented a type, and it is by design that Cotolondi makes him a kind of wise fool, in the manner of a Scapin for Molière. The whole is a series of conversations, mixing tales and witticisms.
A very caustic table of contents allows one to find all the subjects treated: death, Cardinal Mazarin, the prudence of husbands or M. Lully.

First edition. The work was published for Edward de Halifax. It was compiled and collected by George Ellis.
Contemporary full red morocco binding with long grain (English binding). Spine with raised bands and fillets. Gilt fillets framing the boards. All edges gilt. One wormhole to a joint. Handsome copy, very fresh.
The work brings together works by Henry VIII, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Drummond, Dryden...

New edition after the first published in 1766, at the same address.
Half speckled cloth binding, mid-19th century. Smooth spine with fillets. Red calf title-label. The work is a libertine entertainment on elegance and fashion in novel form; it is the story of an elegant man and his tribulations in society.

New illustrated edition of these Romances. One frontispiece and 13 unsigned figures, and 44 pages of engraved music. Printed on heavy laid paper.
Contemporary full tree-calf binding. Smooth spine decorated with arabesques and fleurons. Triple fillet border on covers. All edges gilt. Handsome copy. Light rubbing to corners and joints.
Berquin's poetry enjoyed immense success, and was consequently qualified as popular, while it perfectly reflects European literature of the late 18th century, and one sometimes feels the first Romanticism coming from Germany and England. Some poems are dark and theatrical, full of Gothic reminiscences: « Sous la tour du château s'ouvre une enceinte affreuse/ Où jamais n'a percé le jour/ Les flots d'une vapeur infecte et ténébreuse/ Inondent cet impur séjour. » (Under the castle tower opens a dreadful enclosure/ Where daylight has never pierced/ The waves of an infected and dark vapor/ Flood this impure dwelling.) After devoting himself to poetry, Berquin (1747-1791) was the first French author to specialize in children's literature. The music pages are by Cousin-Jacques, a columnist of the period. On the endpaper, manuscript gift inscription: A Claire de Caperoy.

First edition of this translation by Bougainville. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait by Rigaud engraved by Daulle, and 10 head-pieces and 5 tail-pieces by Eisen, engraved by Tardieu and Delafosse.

Contemporary full blonde calf binding. Smooth spine richly decorated. Red morocco title-label. Headcaps worn, corners slightly bumped. Rubbing to joints and edges.
Bougainville's prose translation tends to better highlight the philosophical qualities of this work, originally in Latin verse, published in 1745. It is not only a critique of the philosophy of Lucretius and Epicurus, but also a critique of the religious ideas of Pierre Bayle and his disciples. The work played a certain role in the philosophical struggle. Interesting preface by Bougainville on philosophy.

Very rare second editions of these two novels by Jean D'Intras de Bazas, published respectively in 1604 and 1603. Only the Bibliothèque Nationale de France holds copies of the first editions and second editions. Absent from French catalogues and from the British Library. A vignette on the title page of "Le martyre de la fidélité" unsigned by Léonard Gautier representing two lovers tied to the pillory on a lit pyre, with numerous figures around them. Nodier's Bulletin du bibliophile and Droz's chronological repertoire of literary text editions recognize only this edition for these texts.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Raised band spine decorated. Upper joint split at foot for 6cm and at head for 2cm. Headcaps worn. The novels are two tragic love stories, both preceded by a gallant and relatively passionate epistle to Madame de Lerm, Anne de Calonges.
Following the first novel, one finds a series of poems of which the last is a fundamentally erotic poem titled "énigme". Intras was a novelist from Languedoc whose florid and lyrical style is relatively complex. His path is relatively original and modern for this early 17th century period. His literature seems nourished by 16th-century Greco-Latin and Italian novelists, but with a distinctly more tragic and dramaturgical accent. His works, too hastily characterized as light, constitute an important turning point for the history of the baroque novel in France.

First edition illustrated with two frontispieces by Horace Vernet and 5 original unsigned ink and wash drawings. A folding map heightened with colors at the end of the work showing the locations where the poem takes place.
Contemporary full calf bindings. Smooth spines decorated with two Grotesque compartments, multiple fillets and rolls. Green morocco title and volume labels. Boards with blind cross-hatching, wide border roll with foliage, Greek key and vase motifs. Rubbing to joints and boards, edges. All edges gilt.
Handsome copy, despite some flaws. Charles-Victor Prévost d'Arlincourt (1788-1856) was, before falling into oblivion, one of the figures of Romanticism, and his popularity rivaled that of Hugo. But, acclaimed by a female audience, he was harpooned by critics who judged his productions implausible. He published his poem on Charlemagne with great publicity fanfare.

Reprint, by the same publisher, of the 1700 edition, 'the most sought-after' according to Brunet III, 1458 who adds: "It is difficult to find well-preserved copies with good margins and whose leaves do not have a russet tint."

Contemporary full brown sheep bindings. Spine with raised bands, decorated. A tear with loss at the junction of the upper joint and headcap of volume II.

Rubbing to corners and joints.

Complete edition, which even contains the translations made by Marot.
Bookplate Biblilothèque Tramar de Lamarque.

First edition. Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait. Rare. Not found in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, French catalogues, the British Library or English catalogues.
Contemporary full vellum binding. Smooth unlettered spine.
The work is a collection of 34 historical novellas, each novella followed by Christian and moral reflections. Jean Pierre Camus was indeed the first to have used fictional literature, that is to say profane means, for the purpose of spiritual edification. Camus believed in the virtues of entertainment, for the novellas present in this work are exclusively literary, only the "reflections" that follow them remind us of the spiritual (and not religious) project. This enterprise is all the more surprising as the modern French novel was in its beginnings. The style is simple, without affectation, and evokes Plutarch.

Second edition, the first appeared in 1688.
Contemporary full speckled calf binding. Raised bands spine handsomely decorated. Tawny title label. A handsome copy.
In the quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, Fontenelle here takes the side of the latter with numerous mockeries and satires against the defenders of the Ancients.

Histoires facetieuses et moralles, assemblées et mises au jour par J. N. D. P., avec quelques histoires tragiques.
Second edition, further augmented by the author. Rare, no earlier edition can be found at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France or the British Library. Vignette on title. Red and black title pages. On page 201 there is a new title page "histoires tragiques de notre temps arrivées en Hollande. Par J. N. D. P. Troisième édition. Leiden, idem, 1669."
Half red calf binding with wide corners, early 20th century. Smooth spine, title lengthwise, double fillet at head and foot of spine. Date at foot, double fillet in blind on covers. Fine copy.
The work comprises 126 short stories, most of them amusing and comical, often touching on morals and gallantry. The second part contains 28 stories that took place in Holland, with more lugubrious tales (stories of crimes, beheadings, thieves, dramas). The narratives are in a style reminiscent of that employed by 17th-century historians; moreover, all the tales are satires or critiques of contemporary morals (often ending with a brief moral), and in this respect they are quite precious for the countless insights they provide into life, morality and customs in the 17th century, particularly in Holland (though all of Europe passes through them). The first edition was published at the same address in 1663. Barbier III, 844. Brunet III, 213. Parival (1605-1669), French author and professor at the University of Leiden, also wrote Les délices de la Hollande and Histoires des misères de ce temps.

Rare counterfeit of the first edition published in Florence the same year, both falsely dated 1799. Illustrated with a plate facing the title page, depicting a henhouse with its cockerels and hens and the Latin legend Orga nascent (They organize themselves). The work is stuffed with small manuscript slips that fill the gaps in the text, such as the numerous suspension points in certain poems.
The first edition and the Turin counterfeit are perfectly identical except for a note on page 172 and a difference in the layout of the table of contents.
Contemporary half tawny morocco binding with straight grain. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons and roulettes. Black title label. A brown stain on the upper board.
Famous anti-French work inspired by Revolutionary terror. Victor Alfieri (1749-1803) was poet, playwright and philosopher, he who was considered the Italian Byron, both champion of Romanticism and steeped in classical culture, revolutionized Italian literature. He came to France around 1788 with the Countess of Albany, his wife; the country he called the land of liberty frightened him with its excesses and revolutionary ardor and he withdrew in 1792 to Florence. The revolutionary government treated him as an émigré and stripped him of most of his fortune.

First collected edition.
Bound in full marbled fawn sheep, smooth spines richly decorated with cross-hatched compartments, morocco title and volume labels in burgundy, upper headcaps worn, some tears notably at foot of spines, gilt roulettes on headcaps, covers framed with gilt floral dentelle, second cover of first volume marginally scuffed, gilt pointillé on edges, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, some corners slightly bumped, marbled edges, contemporary binding.
Portrait of the author as frontispiece to first volume.
Occasional foxing.

Third edition of the works established by Richard Bentley (1662-1742), preferable to the first (Cambridge, 1711) with the notes joined to the text and Treter's index, corrected by Verburgius. A frontispiece engraved by Bernard. Title page in red and black.
Full grained sheep binding, circa 1900 (pastiche of a contemporary binding). Spine with raised bands, decorated. Roulette between the bands. Red morocco title-label. Head worn, as are corners and edges. Numerous gatherings browned. Leaves 128 to 131, lack at bottom of page filled with restoration paper that has browned.
Critical edition considerably annotated and commented.
Numerous manuscript notes in black ink by the owner Raymond Bonafour (1889).

New edition of the French translation established by an anonymous translator.

Bradel bindings in full embossed mint green paper boards, smooth spines with small traces of rubbing, orange sheep title labels, navy sheep volume labels, tears to headcaps, some surface wear to boards, corners bumped, contemporary bindings.
Some light foxing of no consequence.

Rare edition.

First edition of this pamphlet, published supposedly following its reading in 1815.
A particularly violent and accusatory pamphlet against Bonaparte, warning a military son, ready according to the marquis to betray France and his king for an adventurer wishing once again to bleed France dry. The Marquis d'Albertas belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Provence; his mansion was built in Aix, on the square that bears his name today.

Second edition, published after the first edition of 1767.
Contemporary full glazed calf binding. Smooth spine decorated. Red morocco title label. One wormhole on the title label, 2 on the upper board. A pale dampstain in the margin of the first 3 leaves; a tear with loss to leaf 71, without any damage to the text.
Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (1713-1792) was, after being a mediocre actress by necessity, a novelist highly appreciated in her time, to such an extent that her peers refused to acknowledge that the author was a woman. Her first novel had immediate success and the following ones were even better received, praised for the fineness of style and the interest of details, placing Madame Riccoboni among the best novelists of the 18th century. Her work is above all a reflection of the feminine condition of her time, while at the same time paving the way for Romanticism by affirming the primacy of the heart over reason and social conventions. This novel is that of a group of women made independent by widowhood, and finally liberated.

Noted as third edition.
Contemporary full speckled brown paper boards. Red title-label. Rubbing.
Text in Greek and notes in Latin. Study and work on the Scholia, or philological commentaries on Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. The scholia of ancient texts have always been a precious source of information, they were most often written in the margins or between the lines. The authors generally remained anonymous.

First edition. Rare.
In original wrappers. Lacking right corner of title page (the letter E of "lune" is therefore missing), and lower right corner.
A satire of the French Revolution. Cousin Jacques was the pseudonym of the journalist Beffroy de Reigny to whom he owed his celebrity. He is the author of comic pieces on the French Revolution and the political and social transformations of his time.

First edition.
In original wrappers, covered with strong beige paper in the 20th century. Covers turned in.
A vaudeville, that is to say a popular play, often embellished with songs as is the case here, the play tells the story of two castaways believing they possess a casket filled with riches. This contains the Constitutions of 1791, 1793, of Year III... This treasure will make them quasi-divinities among the islanders.

First edition.
Half bronze sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with two typographical motifs and triple gilt fillets at head and foot, headcaps lightly rubbed, marbled paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, late 19th-century binding.
A copy free from foxing.

First edition of the critical study and literal translation, verse by verse, from the Saxon manuscript discovered in 1794 at the library of Bamberg Cathedral by Canon G. Gley.
Two tiny lacks at foot of spine and at head, otherwise handsome copy. Rare.

Collection of various plays, containing, by Mercier: Le Vindicatif (date corresponding to the privilege 1774), Le déserteur (1770), Jenneval (1783), and by Desforges: La piété filiale (1784), Richard et Derlet (1779), Tom Jones (adapted from Fielding's novel 1783).
Contemporary full sheep binding in marbled and speckled brown, marbled edges, raised band spine decorated. A tear with loss to the lower joint on the front board, light scuffing. Good overall condition of the paper, but dampstains on the first leaves.

First edition.
In original wrappers, covered with cream paper. Glue marks on the half-title, the cover being detached.
This play is one of the first examples of historical drama. It was written with the intention of teaching about the errors of the past.

First edition. Rare. Absent from French catalogues, one copy at the British Library.
Binding in 19th-century half bordeaux sheep. Gilt title. Spine partly rubbed.
The numerous footnotes that comment on the poem constitute a precious source of information on canaries. Abbé Bérault Bercastel wrote a celebrated history of the church.

This edition appeared simultaneously with the first edition published in Paris by Shoell. This edition appears less common than the Parisian one, and is found only in English catalogues.
Half caramel calf bindings with corners. Smooth spine with gilt fillets. Black calf title label. 2 upper headcaps slightly worn. Rubbing.
Madame de Souza was one of the most intelligent women under the reign of Louis XVI, during which she held a salon. She was forced to leave France in 1793, soon became a widow (her husband was guillotined), then remarried in 1802. Her novels, imbued with the spirit and manner of the late eighteenth century, enjoyed great success. They are unfortunately little studied today and would merit rehabilitation.
« Dans Eugénie et Mathilde, où elle a peint l'impression des premiers événemens de la révolution sur une famille noble, il est permis de lui attribuer une part du sentiment de Mathilde, qui se dit ennuyée à l'excès de cette révolution, toutes les fois qu'elle n'en est pas désolée. on trouve dans celui d'Eugénie et Mathilde, qui parut seulement en 1811, des reflets non moins frappans de la nature du nord, des rivages de Hollande, des rades de la Baltique, où se prolongeait tristement l'exil de Mme de Flahaut (le premier mariage de Mme de Souza). Eugénie et Mathilde, que nous avons déjà beaucoup cité, est le plus long et le plus soutenu des ouvrages de l'auteur. L'auteur y a représenté au complet l'intérieur d'une famille noble pendant les années de la révolution. Dans Eugénie et Mathilde, Mme de Souza s'est épanchée personnellement plus peut-être que partout ailleurs. » (In Eugénie et Mathilde, where she painted the impression of the first events of the revolution on a noble family, it is permitted to attribute to her a part of Mathilde's sentiment, who says she is excessively bored by this revolution, whenever she is not desolated by it. One finds in that of Eugénie et Mathilde, which appeared only in 1811, no less striking reflections of the nature of the north, of the shores of Holland, of the roadsteads of the Baltic, where the exile of Mme de Flahaut (Mme de Souza's first marriage) was sadly prolonged. Eugénie et Mathilde, which we have already cited extensively, is the longest and most sustained of the author's works. The author has represented there completely the interior of a noble family during the years of the revolution. In Eugénie et Mathilde, Mme de Souza poured herself out personally more perhaps than anywhere else.) (Extracts from Sainte-Beuve, Revue des deux mondes, Vol. 1, 1834).

First edition. Uncommon. One copy at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (and a reprint from 1730) and another at Oxford. Absent from the British Library and French catalogues.
Late 18th-century full pasteboard binding. Red morocco title label. Upper and lower joints cracked 5 cm on lower board. The upper corner in right margin of title page has been torn away without loss of text. Title page of second volume missing. Pages 1 to 12, the upper corner of each page has been torn away with occasional loss of a few letters. A hole in the middle of the last page of the table of contents. The beginning of the fourth part is annotated, certain paragraphs are crossed out, some lines deleted. Leaf 35 detached.
The work is a collection of thoughts on all sorts of matters, on drunkenness, brunettes, tea, hunting, celibacy, riches, a kind of entertaining, original and free counterpart to the edifying and moral collections of thoughts that circulated at the same time.

First edition of this play, which is followed by Romulus, whose first edition is from 1713. The second play has its own title page and privilege. Both plays belong to the same edition.
Contemporary full sheep binding. Decorated raised spine. Red morocco title label. Lower headcap worn. Lower corners bumped.
Les Machabées was first performed in 1721. The author having not judged it appropriate to reveal himself, the play caused a great stir among critics, and several connoisseurs imagined that at least the first three acts could only be by the late Racine. Playwright, poet and fabulist, Houdar de la Motte (1672-1731) even wrote operas (L'Europe galante) and ballets. He was one of the leaders of the Modern party (in the quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns), he frequented philosophical salons and literary cafés and replaced Pierre Corneille at the French Academy. He held an important place in the literary life of his time.

First edition. Scarce.
Contemporary full speckled calf binding. Decorated spine with raised bands. Lacking the last compartment and headcap (torn away). Corners bumped.
Series of poems addressed to the dauphin, arranged chronologically over 29 weeks, from June 3, 1666 to December 17. These poems establish a contemporary history of France and Europe, but also of the court and royalty.

First edition.
Contemporary half brown calf binding. Smooth spine with fleurons and fillets.
Following the convocation of the Estates-General in 1789 and recent events, the author expresses his reflections on the future of the people, the clergy, the king, the nobility... In the preamble, Bernardin de Saint Pierre expresses doubt regarding the decisions of the National Assembly, which alone cannot make just decisions for the people. His political reflection revolves around a balance of powers. The author's prose is characterized, even in this political essay, by a very personal accent of sincerity, the discourse being interspersed with many autobiographical touches.

Edition published the same year as the first French translation, without publisher's name.
In original wrappers. Under 18th-century pink floral paper. Spine lacking.
Actually translated by the actor Desormes from Robert Dodsley's book: "The economy of human life". A series of maxims and wisdom.

First edition printed on strong paper, which suggests this is a deluxe copy.
In original wrappers, covered with marbled paper pastiche from the 18th to 20th century. Tear at head of spine. A lack to the upper right corner.
The Marquis de Bièvre (1747-1789) was an accomplished courtier and an original character, famous for his skill in handling puns and satirical and deadly repartees in the salons (he wrote this term, Kalembourg, in the Encyclopédie). His play Le séducteur was constantly reissued until after the Empire. He also wrote Vercingétorix, tragedy in one act and one verse, where everything was propitious for wordplay.
Manuscript ownership inscription in pen by G(eorges) Labiche on the half-title page.

First edition. In original wrappers, under contemporary blue paper. Second letter written by Benjamin Constant addressed to the lawyer at the court of cassation Odillon Barrot, in which the author once again defends the accused, condemned to death not on evidence but on rumors and prejudices. « Je montrerai tout à l'heure que de tous ceux sur qui le soupçon pouvait planer, Regnault était celui qu'il devait le moins atteindre. » (I will show presently that of all those on whom suspicion could fall, Regnault was the one it should least have reached.) Constant reviews all the facts of the trial, examines and confronts them, and dismantles the prosecution. The account is most interesting.