Œuvres de Monsieur de Montesquieu, nouvelle édition, revue, corrigée, & considérablement augmentée par l'auteur.

First edition of the complete works of Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède and de Montesquieu, edited by François Richer under the supervision of the author's son. Volumes 1 and 2 contain the celebrated Spirit of the Laws, introduced by a headpiece depicting the 1753 Dassier medal and illustrated with two maps—a world map and one of Europe—in the second volume. This copy is enriched with a frontispiece, painted by Jacques de Sève and engraved by Claude-Antoine Littret, from the 1767 London edition, as well as 10 additional pages containing the "Additions" in volume 3.

Regarded as canonical, this 1758 edition was, according to Plassan and André Masson, "prepared from the author's text and the changes found among his papers."

Contemporary bindings in speckled brown calf, smooth spines richly gilt, brown morocco lettering and numbering pieces, triple gilt fillet to boards with fleurons at corners, double gilt fillet to board edges, comb marbled blue edges, turn-ins tooled with gilt pomegranates and fleurons, shell marbled endpapers and pastedowns. The pastedowns of this copy bear a library stamp on each volume and two armorial bookplates on volumes 1 and 3: the first bearing the coat of arms of Prince Auguste Marie Raymond d'Arenberg, Count de La Marck; the second that of his son Prince Ernst Engelbert Louis Marie d'Arenberg.

Some minor rubbing and surface scratches to boards, small tear to upper board margin of volume 1, headcap slightly detached on volume 1, wormhole to tail of spine of volume 2, corners bumped.

Some scattered foxing. In volume 1, small wormholes to pp. v and 1 margins. In volume 3, tiny marginal tear to p. 115 and small marginal hole to p. 175.

Page ix appears twice in volume 1, the second time facing p. lxxxvi. Some manuscript annotations, notably on the half-title of volume 3.

 (our own translation)

"This is, so to speak, the definitive edition of the works that Montesquieu himself wished to give to the public. Richer had been given access to the corrections and additions that Montesquieu had made to his works."

Montesquieu et l'esclavage: étude sur les origines de l'opinion antiesclavagiste en France au XVIIIe siècle, Russel Parsons Jameson, 1911

 (our own translation)

A rare enriched copy in contemporary binding with the distinguished provenance of the Princes of Arenberg.