Jugemens des Savans sur les principaux ouvrages des Auteurs. Revûs, corrigez, & augmentez par Mr. de la Monnoye. Nouvelle édition, Augmentée I. de L'Anti-Baillet de Menage, avec des Observations de Mr. de la Monnoye; 2. des Reflexions sur les Jugemens des Savans; 3. des Reflexions sur la Vie de Descartes par Baillet; 4. des Jugemens des Savans sur les Maitres d'Eloquence par Mr. Gibert, Professeur de Rhetorique.

New edition. Frontispiece portrait of Baillet engraved by Edelinck. Title pages printed in red and black.
Contemporary full marbled brown calf. Spine with raised bands adorned with four gilt-stamped sunflower motifs in panel compartments. Red morocco title label, tan morocco volume label. The volume label for volume II is missing, but the impressed characters remain legible. Scuffing and scratches to several covers, notably volume I. Worming in volume I, affecting preliminary leaves 1 to lxiii, from the inner margin toward the text with some loss of letters, and a wormhole running through. One gallery to the lower board of volume I. In volume III, two wormholes from the beginning to p. 180, then a diminishing gallery up to p. 267. A clean and well-preserved set overall, though the paper in volume II is slightly toned.

First and major bibliographical undertaking built on an entirely new methodology. Appointed librarian to Lamoignon, Baillet set out to compile a comprehensive inventory of authors and works from every field of knowledge since Antiquity, gathering them into an encyclopedic work. Beyond this classificatory effort, Baillet introduced a new approach by including assessments and critical commentary for each entry — marking the birth of critical bibliography. He aimed to catalogue all critical opinions written about a given work. This vast project was entrusted in 1706 to Bernard de La Monnoye. Encompassing numerous entries and thematic categories, this substantial corpus includes evaluations of leading printers, Latin translators, grammarians, along with the traditional listings of poets, writers, and historians...