Œuvres de Montesquieu

A fine large-paper copy on vellum of the 1796 edition, which contains several previously unpublished texts by the author, a frontispiece portrait, 13 illustrations and 2 maps, engraved by Pierre-Alexandre Tardieu, Claude-Nicolas Malapeau, P. F. Tardieu, A. Girardet, Jean Louis Charles Pauquet, François Denis Née, Emmanuel-Jean-Népomucène de Ghendt, Charles Emmanuel Patas, Noël Le Mire and Vincent-Marie Langlois (in order of appearance).

Contemporary half long-grain red morocco bindings, smooth spines divided by hatched gilt fillets forming false panels, each decorated in gilt with the author's name, the volume number, and at the foot the binder's name, red-pink marbled paper boards, fore-edges and tail edges untrimmed. Bindings signed P. Meslant on the spine, a notable binder of the first half of the nineteenth century whose clients included Louis-Philippe d'Orléans and several members of his family.

Overall, wear to the boards, rubbing at the edges, corners bumped.

Vol. 1: very minor damage to the headcaps, paper at the lower left corner of the rear board slightly cracked.

Vol. 3: upper headcap very slightly split.

Vol. 4: lower headcap slightly depressed, paper at the upper right corner of the front board slightly cracked.

Vol. 5: upper right corner of the front board fragile, with a crack; the same applies, though to a lesser degree, at the lower left corner of the rear board.

Scattered foxing throughout.

Vol. 1: small marginal wormhole at p. 9; 1 in. tear at the foot of p. 85; pale dampstain in the margin of pp. 177-184; small tear at p. 183, repeated at p. 277 and p. 347; dampstain to pp. 317-320; minute wormhole affecting one letter at p. 379.

Vol. 2: tears at pp. 9 and 58; pp. 281-284, 309-312 and 329-332 uncut.

Vol. 3: pp. [149]-152, 241-244, 297-452 and 457-464 uncut.

Vol. 4: tear at p. 299; pale browning to pp. 401-409; pp. 409-412 uncut.

Vol. 5: small tear at p. 33; pp. 345-348 and 357-364 uncut; small hole in the tissue guard facing p. 442; one tissue guard missing facing pp. 449 and 457.

The illustrations are distributed as follows: 1 plate and 2 maps in vol. 3; 2 plates in vol. 4; 10 plates in vol. 5.

The previously unpublished texts in this edition, held at the Bordeaux library in 1796, are the following:

• A chapter on the rules of art
• An essay on Roman religious policy
• The reception address to the Académie de Bordeaux
• An opening address to the Académie
• On the cause of echo
• On the function of the renal glands
• A plan for a natural history of the earth
• A discourse on the cause of the weight of bodies
• On the cause of the transparency of bodies
• Observations on natural history
• An opening address to the Bordeaux Parlement
• On the incentives for the study of the sciences
• A eulogy of the Duc de la Force
• A draft eulogy of the Duc de Berwick
• Miscellaneous thoughts
• New letters
• Anecdotes
• Arsace et Isménie
• Some new poems
• Some notes on the familiar letters

(our own translation)