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Catalogue ~ Antiquarian French ARABIAN NIGHTS. Les milles et une nuit, contes arabes, traduits en françois par M. Galland. Nouvelle édition corrigée. Paris: Compagnie des Libraires, 1745. 12mo. 6 vols. Contemporary speckled calf, slightly worn. Bookplate of Edward Gibbon in vols 2, 4-6 (vol.1 has had front board replaced and vol.3 has had bookplate removed). Gibbon’s bookplate is partially overlaid by a bookplate with unidentified cypher. After studying at the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, Antoine Galland (1646-1715) furthered his knowledge of oriental languages in the course of two trips to the Near East. As assistant to the French ambassador to Constantinople, Galland was also able to augment the oriental collections of Lois XIV and his chief minister, Colbert. On returning to France in 1688 Galland prepared the edition of the Bibliothèque orientale for B. d’Herbelot de Molainville; later he was librarian to Thierry Bignon and then to Nicolas Joseph Foucault. Galland’s translation of the Mille et une nuit , a collection of tales with origins in India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Turkey, was the first European translation and remained standard until the mid 19th century, even being re-translated into Arabic. This is Edward Gibbon’s copy (one of three editions in his library). It was a work which by his own account had been a fascination to the historian since childhood. Sir Geoffey Keynes, The library of Edward Gibbon: a catalogue, 2nd ed. (1980) pp.54 & 289. Book # 6/002. £200 ARNAULD, Antoine & NICOLE, Pierre. La logique ou l’art de penser, contenant outre les regles communes, plusieurs observations nouvelles, propres à former le jugement. Sixième édition, revûe & de nouveau augmentée. Paris: chez Guillaume Desprez, 1730. 12mo. xlviii, 427, [5]p. Contemporary sprinkled calf, spine gilt. Logique ou l’art de penser, first published in 1662, was originally intended for the instruction of the young Duc de Chevreuse. It was written by two Jansenists from Port-Royal and is usually known in English as the Logic of Port-Royal (an English translation appeared in 1685 and was several times reprinted). Formal logicians would perhaps not recognize this work as a substantial part of the history of logic; it looks back to the theories of signification that were prominent in the late Middle Ages and seeks to clarify the notions of substance, attribute, mode etc. as these notions were used in the 17th century, by Descartes among others. It is notable for making the distinction between the comprehension of terms - between the ideas that a general term expresses and the things to which it is applied - a distinction which was to assume greater importance in later philosophy of logic. Indeed the Port-Royal logic in its account of what are called 'complex terms' raises considerations which are relevant to 20th-century discussions of what Russell called 'the theory of descriptions.' W. Risse, Bibliographica logica, vol.1, p.195. Book # 6/003. £70 BOSSUET, Jacques Bénigne. Discours sur l’histoire universelle ... Neuvième édition. Londres: David Mortier, 1707. 12mo. 439, [3]p. Frontis. Bound with: Continuation ... jusqu’à l’an 1700, Londres: David Mortier, 1707. 12mo. 216p. Frontis. Contemporary calf, somewhat delapidated, weak at joints and spine beginning to crack. Bookplate: ‘Hugh Bethell of Swindon in the County of York Esqr 1707’. Copious marginalia in French. As tutor to the Dauphin from 1670 to 1680, Bossuet composed this chronological abstract of the history of the world followed by a commentary showing a) the development of religion, and b) the causes of the rise and fall of Empires. For Bossuet there was no such thing as chance in history; divine providence guides all things. Book # 6/008. £20 [BOUDIER DE VILLEMENT, Pierre Joseph]. L’amico delle donne: opera morale trasportata dall’ idioma franzese nell’ italiano dall’ abate Giuliano Merlini. Firenze: Andrea Bonducci, 1761. 8vo. xvi, 152p. Marbled boards, leather-backed. slightly worn. An Italian translation of L’ami des femmes, first published in Paris in 1758. ‘Ce livre blâme les femmes qui écrivent ou étudient les sciences; il veut qu’elles travaillent continuellement aux ouvrages d’aiguille; il préconise le mariage, et demande que les femmes nourrissent elles-mêmes leurs enfants.’ - Jules Gay, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour, aux femmes, au mariage, 4 éd., p.94. No Italian translation in NUC, BL, BN (Paris). Book # 6/010. £55 CAMPISTRON, Jean Galbert de. Oeuvres choisies. Édition stéréotype. Paris: Didot, 1810. xiv, 198, [1]p. Red cloth, leather-backed. Between 1683 and 1709 Campistron turned out 9 tragedies, 2 comedies and, in collaboration with Lully, 3 ‘tragédies en musique’. To a certain extent Campistron was an imitator of Corneille and Racine, but not so much as to accuse him of lack of originality. Some of his tragedies are heroic and patriotic; others pyschological and pathetic. The conflict of generations and the fatal destructiveness of incestuous love are recurrent themes. Book # 6/016. £20 CHARRON, Pierre. De la sagesse. Paris: Jean-François Bastien, 1783. 8vo. xxviii, 768p. Frontis. portrait of Charron. 19th-century calf, gilt, weak at joints. A work of stoic philosophy in the manner of Montaigne, in which Charron makes an abrupt departure from his former orthodoxy, typified in his Les trois vérités (1594) and proclaims himself as the representative of the most complete intellectual scepticism. With its suggestion that the study of Man can produce a morality independent of religious dogma, Charron’s book encountered virulent hostility, especially from the Jesuits. First published in 1601 - and partially revised by the author himself in 1603 - the text of De la sagesse became corrupted by later 17th-century editors. The editor of this 1783 edition says his purpose is to restore Charron’s original text. Book # 6/019. £60 COMINES, Philippe de. Les mémoires ... Le tout reveu & corrigé sur l’édition de Denis Sauvage. Paris: la vefue Claude de Monst’oeil, 1616. 8vo. [2], 750, [16]p. Slight marginal worming in 2M-T, not affecting text. 18th-century speckled calf, a little weak at joints. Bookplate of George Baird, Stichill. These Mémoires, composed at the end of the 15th century, were intended for the instruction of princes and statesmen. A man of lucid intelligence, deeply interested in the art and science politics, Comines found in Louis XI of France a kindred spirit. He shows himself a statesman of almost modern quality, with a poor opinion of the old feudal chivalry and a view of war as a great evil. He believes there should be no taxation without the consent of the taxpayers, and that the power of a monarch depends, not on the degree of his despotic power, but on the affection of his subjects. This edition is the work of Henri II's historiographer, Denis Sauvage, whose prolific output included editions of the chronicles of Froissart, Gilles, Monstrelet and La Marche, and translations of Plutarch, Gelli, Giovio, Collenuccio and Leo Hebraeus. This edition not in Goldsmith. Book # 6/021. £170 CORNEILLE, Thomas. Poèmes dramatiques ... Nouvelle édition, revûë, corrigée & augmentée. Paris: chez Guillaume Cavelier, 1722. 12mo. 4 vols. 27 engraved plates. Contemporary calf, gilt, with some signs of wear. Title and preliminaries of vol. 4 discoloured. The younger brother - by 20 years - of the more renowned playwright, Pierre Corneille, Thomas produced over 40 comedies, tragi-comedies, tragedies and operas, some of which (e.g. his romantic tragedy Timocrate and his comedy Le Geôlier de soi même) were highly successful in their day. Book # 6/022. £160 CURTIUS RUFUS, Quintus. De la vie et des actions d’Alexandre le Grand. De la traduction de Monsieur de Vaugelas. Quatrième édition ... Lyon: Claude Chize, 1692. 12mo. [40], 584, [54]p. Frontispiece portrait of Alexander. Some pages lightly browned; small tear in margin of T12. Contemporary calf, worn. Modelled on Livy, this history of Alexander the Great reflects the Peripatetic view of a tyrant favoured by Fortune, but it also contains varied information, both valuable and dubious, from the general tradition. Composed in 10 books, the surviving text begins at book 3 (333 B.C.) and has gaps between books 5 and 6 and in book 10. The description is dramatic, romantic and rhetorical. This French translation was the fruit of almost 30 years work by the celebrated grammarian, Claude Favre de Vaugelas. It had almost as much success as his Remarques sur la langue française and, later, Balzac said of it ‘l’Alexandre de Quinte-Curce est invincible et celui de Favre est inimitable.’ This edition not in Goldsmith. Book # 6/025. £50 DAUNOU, Pierre Claude François. Essai sur les garanties individuelles que réclame l’état actuel de la société. Paris: Foulon, 1819. [4], 245p. Modern marbled boards, leather-backed. Historian, legislator and idéologue, Daunou opposed Louis XVI’s trial and protested against the proscription of the Girondins. He was the chief author of the constitution of 1795 and founder of the Institut National. After Bonaparte’s coup in 1799, he also participated in the writing of the constitution of the year VIII (Dec. 1799) from which Napoleon excised many liberal provisions. O. Connelly, Historical dictionary of Napoleonic France, 1799-1815, p.145. Book # 6/099. £135 DROZ, Joseph François Xavier. La morale applicata alla politica. Prima traduzione italiana di S.C. Firenze: G.P. Vieusseux, 1826. 8vo. 134, [1]p. Marbled boards, leather-backed. Writer on literature and philosophy, Droz was also one of the founders of the science of political economy. In 1801 he published Des lois relatives au progrès de l’industrie, which was followed in 1829 by his principal work Économie politique, ou principes de la science de richesses. La morale applicata alla politica is an Italian translation of his Applications de la morale à la politique first published in 1825. Two years earlier Droz had published De la philosophie morale, whose main thesis is that society will never be in a proper state until men have been educated to think of their duties as much as their rights. Book # 6/100. £40 DUMARSAIS, César Chesneau. Logique et principes de grammaire. Paris: chez Briasson, Le Breton, Herissant fils, 1769. 12mo. 2 vols. Contemporary mottled calf. Between 1751 and 1756 Dumarsais contributed over 100 articles on language to the Encyclopédie, including those on Abécédaire, Barbarisme, Construction, Décliner, Epithète, Figurative and Grammarien. At about the same time he was working on the manuscript of his Logique ou réflexions sur les principales opérations de l'esprit. After Dumarsais's death some of his more important Encyclopédie articles were added to the Logique and published under the title Logique et principes de grammaire. See G. Sahlin, César Chesneau Dumarsais et son rôle dans l'évolution de la grammaire générale, p.x. W. Risse, Bibliographica logica, vol.1, p.220. Book # 6/029. £100 DUMARSAIS, César Chesneau. Traité des tropes. Pour servir d’introduction à la rhetorique et à la logique ... Nouvelle édition publiée par Mr. Formey. Leipsic: Veuve Gaspard Fritsch, 1757. 8vo. [12], 274, [2]p. Contemporary calf, slightly worn. Dumarsais’s Des tropes, a study of the modification of meaning, was entirely neglected when it first appeared in 1730. Despite a second edition in 1757, the book only became famous at the end of the century and at the beginning of the next. Des tropes can be viewed as a branch of linguistic study devoted to the figurative use of words; the first part of the book relates this subject to Dumarsais’s theory of knowledge and theory of the simplest use of signs; there is further discussion on the theory of liaison des idées. The second part deals with particular tropes: metonymy, hyperbole, metaphor, euphemism; and in the third part Dumarsais discusses such questions as ‘sens literal’, sens spirituel’, ‘sens abstrait’ and ‘sens concret’. See J.S. Spink, Philosophical speculation and literary technique: the systematic context of Du Marsais’s ‘Des tropes’, in Voltaire and his world: studies presented to W.H. Barber, pp.241-60. Book # 6/030. £200 FLACHAT, Eugène & PETIET, Jules. Calculs et tableaux sur l’avance du tiroir, les tuyaux d’échappement, les conduits de vapeur et de fumée dans les machines locomotives (extrait du Guide du mécanicien conducteur de machines locomotives), précédés d’une lettre à M. Arago, Secrétaire Perpétuel de l’Académie des Sciences; par Eugène Flachat et Jules Petiet. Ingénieurs Civils. [Paris? 1839?] Small 8vo. xiii, 92p. Some spotting and a little damp-staining. New marbled boards cloth spine, new end papers. "Lettre à M. Arago" is dated "Paris, le 22 novembre 1839" and the second paragraph includes the information "Nos observations ont été faites sur cinquante machines des chemins de fer de Saint-Germain et de Versailles (rive droite), et, par conséquent, sur des locomotives spécialement affectées au transport des voyageurs." An early work of railway interest published only a couple of years after the inauguration (26 August 1837) of the first steam railway in France to operate for both freight and passengers (connnecting Paris and the town of St. Germain). Flachat was a distinguished civil engineer from Nîmes who in his youth had made a study of the London docks and had been involved in the planning of the Paris-St. Germain line. He was responsible for numerous publications on locomotive design, railway engineering, projects for new docks and railway lines (including the Simplon route through the Alps) Book # 6/102. £60 FRANCE. Henri III. Lettres patetes du Roy, pour l’accroissement & augmentation de l’appanage de Monseigneur le Duc d’Alençon son frere. Levës & publiees à Paris en Parlement, le vingt quatrieme jour de May 1576. Lyon: Michel Jove & Jean Pillehotte, 1576. 8vo. 13, [1]p. Modern marbled paper wrappers. Published slightly later in the same month as the Edict of Beaulieu which marked a watershed in the Wars of Religion in France. The edict, known as the ‘peace of Monsieur’ because to contemporaries it appeared that it had been forced upon Henri III by his younger brother the Duke of Alençon, gave generous concessions to the Huguenots. Shortly afterwards, by these letters patent Henri gave to his brother Alençon the rich duchies of Anjou, Touraine and Berry to add to his apanage, together with the right to make all appointments to offices and benefices in the new duchies. Alençon was also given the title of Duke of Anjou, the prestigious title held by Henri III before he succeeded to the throne in 1574. See W.P. Holt, The Duke of Anjou and the politique struggle during the Wars of Religion, pp.65-8. Baudrier, Bibliographie lyonnaise, vol.2, p.437; Catalogue de l’histoire de France, vol.1, p.298, (Lb34, no.152). Not in Robert O. Lindsay & John Neu, French political pamphlets, 1547-1648: a catalogue of major collections in American libraries. No copy traced in NUC or BL. Book # 6/035. £360 FRANCE. Henri III. Lettres patentes du Roy, contenans la commission pour la saisie & vente des biens de ceux de la nouvelle opinion, & autres tenans leur party. Lyon: Michel Jove & Jean Pillehotte, 1577. 8vo. 13, [3]p. Modern marbled wrappers. This royal decree, dated 3 July 1577, was issued whilst the court was at Poitiers, shortly after the surrender of the Protestant stronghold of Issoire to royal forces (12 June). By it, Henri calls for the confiscation of Huguenot property: ‘vous verrez la resolution que nous avons prinse sur le faict des biens meubles & immeubles de ceux de la nouvelle opinion, & autres tenãs leur party, qui se sont notoiremet eslevez en armes cõtre nostre authorité & service, & se sont absentez hors cestuy nostre royaume, sans nostre cõgé & permission.’ Not listed in Baudrier, Bibliographie lyonnaise; no copy in NUC or BL. For a Paris edition of the same year from the press of F. Morel, see Robert O. Lindsay & John Neu, French political pamphlets, 1547-1648: a catalogue of major collections in American libraries, no.916. Book # 6/036. £400 FUMÉE, Antoine. Tractatus tres. De eo quod interest. De substitutionibus. De coniunctionibus. Tolosae: apud Joannem Girardum, 1546. 4to. 123p. Bound in a leaf of vellum from a late medieval manuscript; skilfully restored, new fly leaves. This legal treatise was first published at Lyon in 1536, the year in which its author became an active member of the Paris Parlement. As a suspected crypto-Protestant, Fumée prudently withdrew from Paris in the early 1560s and became attached to the Breton Parlement. He later returned to Paris and celebrated the accession of Henri III (1574) with a lively flurry of literary activity, including three courtly eclogues in Latin and a panegyric on the king’s return from Poland. Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au 16e siècle, 20e livraison, 151 (Toulouse), p.158, no.3. This ed. not in NUC, BL or BN (Paris). Book # 6/038. £290 GIBERT, Balthasar. La rhetorique ou les regles de l’eloquence. Paris: chez la Veuve Savoye, 1766. 12mo. [2], 650, [7]p. Small paper flaw in F10. Contemporary mottled calf, with slight wear at corners and head and foot of spine. Bookplate. For 50 years Gibert taught rhetoric at the Collège Mazarin in Paris. As well as several panegyrical works, he published a number of books on rhetoric, in several of which he opposed the views of the Benedictine François Lamy. The present text is Gibert’s own translation of his Rhetorica juxta Aristotelis doctrinam dialogis explanata (1730). Book # 6/042. £75 GIRARD, Gabriel. Synonymes françois ... Troisième édition. Paris: Veuve d’Houry, 1740. 12mo. xxiv, 495p. Contemporary speckled calf, slightly rubbed. In the 18th century specialised studies of French synonyms began to appear, the first being Girard’s La justesse de la langue françoise (1718). Much praised by Voltaire, it was several times re-edited with the title Synonymes françois, and later it was augmented by some of the Encyclopédistes, including Diderot. In 1802 Morin incorporated Girard’s work into his Dictionnaire universel des synonymes. Book # 6/043. £60 GRAFFIGNY, Françoise de. Letters written by a Peruvian princess. Translated from the French. The second edition. Revised and corrected by the translator. To which is now first added, The sequel of the Peruvian letters. London: printed for J. Brindley, 1749. 12mo. xii, 307, [5]p. Last leaf of contents pasted down. Modern cloth, upper joint splitting. A regular visitor at the Château de Cirey, where Voltaire lived for some years with Mme du Châtelet, Mme de Graffigny is best known for her Vie privée de Voltaire et de Mme du Châtelet (not published until 1820 but circulated in manuscript amongst contemporaries) and for her Lettres d’une Péruvienne published in 1747. The latter are a series of 41 letters purporting to be written by a young Peruvian lady brought to France when her country is conquered by the Spaniards. The work owes something to Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes, to Richardson’s Pamela and also to the Lettres d’une religieuse portugaise. It helped to popularize the epistolary novel in France and it was this work which led Turgot to draft his observations on French institutions and manners. ESTC t118805. Book # 6/046. £50 GUIZOT, François Pierre Guillaume. Democracy in France. January, 1849. London: John Murray, 1849. 8vo. vii, 86p. Printed boards, rather worn at spine; contents sound. As leader of the conservative constitutional monarchists during the July Monarchy (1830-48), Guizot was the dominant minister in France. In foreign affairs his policies were rather successful, especially as they affected relations with England. Domestically they were less so and he was forced to resign on 23 February 1848; the next day the monarch he had served so vigorously had to abdicate and a new republic was established. In January 1849 Guizot published his pamphlet De la démocratie en France in which he attacked universal suffrage. Book # 6/048. £15 [HARE, Francis]. La conduite de son altesse le prince et duc de Marlborough dans la presente guerre. Avec plusieurs pieces originales. Traduit de l’anglois. Amsterdam: chez Pierre de Coup, 1714. 12mo. [8], 408p. Contemporary calf, rather worn. It is generally accepted that this defence of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, was written by his personal chaplain, Francis Hare, though the book has escaped the attention of most modern writers. First published in English in London in 1712, it has been suggested that that edition was subsidized by Marlborough himself. Hare was an eye-witness to Marlborough’s campaigns on the Continent and was concerned to refute the charges - notably by Swift and other Tory critics - that the Duke had sought to prolong the War of the Spanish Succession for his own financial gain. Several years earlier (in 1705) Hare had published, again anonymously, an even more important biographical study of Marlborough, The life and glorious history of John D. and E. of Marlborough, a work of extreme rarity. See R.D. Horn, Marlborough’s first biographer, Dr. Francis Hare, Huntington Library Quarterly, vol.20, pp.145-62. Book # 6/049. £55 JUAN DE LA CRUZ. Les oeuvres spirituelles ... Traduction nouvelle. Par ... Jean Maillard. Paris: Jean Couterot, 1695. 4to. [40], 594, [12]p. Library stamp on t.p. partly deleted; slight worming in lower margin of prelims not affecting text; a little spotting. Modern cloth boards, vellum-backed. St. John of the Cross challenges Luis de León for the title of Spain’s greatest poet and most critics would unhesitatingly describe him as the greatest mystic Spain has produced since the Renaissance. The three poems on which St. John’s fame rests as a writer and mystic are: Noche oscura, Cántico espiritual - which with the most exquisite imagery describe the soul’s quest of her Beloved - and Llama de amor viva, which dwells on the glories of the Life of Union. The Jesuit, Jean Maillard, also translated into French the writings of St. Teresa. His translation of St. John of the Cross had been preceded earlier in the 17th century by that of Père Cyprien de la Nativité de la Vierge. De Backer-Sommervogel, vol.5, vol.338, no.8; Cioranescu 44348. Book # 6/050. £140 LA CHAUSSÉE, Pierre Claude Nivelle de. Oeuvres choisies. Édition stéréotype. Paris: Didot l’ainé & Firmin Didot, 1810. 2 vols. Red cloth, leather-backed. La Chaussée (1692-1754) was the originator in France of sentimental comedy, comédie larmoyante as it was nicknamed by his opponents, in which the pathetic element, drawn from the realistic representation of the sufferings of everyday domestic life, outweighs or entirely obliterates the comic. Book # 6/051. £20 LACOMBE, François. Dictionnaire du vieux langage françois., enrichi de passages tirés des manuscrits en vers & en prose, des actes publics, des ordonnances de nos rois, &c. Ouvrage utile aux legistes, notaires, archivistes, généalogistes, &c. ... [With Supplément.] Paris: chez Panckoucke, 1766-67. 8vo. 2 vols. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt; worn at corners and joints; spine of the Supplément chipped at head and tail. The publisher of the Supplément is Nicolas Augustin Delalain. Lacombe’s was the first complete dictionary of Old French to be printed - it had been preceded in 1756 by the Project d’un glossaire de l’ancienne française of Jean-Baptiste de la Curne de Sainte-Palaye, but that work consisted only of a specimen of some 30 pages and the remaining 61 volumes of manuscript were not published until 1875-82. Lacombe’s literary activities were various - this Dictionnaire; a fabricated correspondence of Queen Cristina; translations from the English; and Observations sur Londres et ses environs. Book # 6/052. £200 LE BEUF, Jean. Histoire de la ville et de tout le diocèse de Paris. Paris: Prault père, 1754-58. 12mo. 15 vols. Vols 1 & 2 are numbered ‘Tome premier - première partie, seconde partie’; vol.3 is unnumbered and has title Histoire de la banlieue ecclésiastique de Paris; vols 4-15 have title Histoire du diocèse de Paris. Book-label of Monsieur Naudé Curé de Quatre-Marcs in earlier vols. Contemporary calf, spines, gilt (style not uniform throughout set); spines of vols 1-3, 8 & 9 chipped; most title labels missing. A native of Auxerre and canon of its cathedral, the antiquary Le Beuf published a wealth of historical research including over 150 pieces in the Mercure de France and other journals. He assisted in a new edition of Du Cange’s Glossarium and in 1741 was made a member of the Académie des Inscriptions. Probably his most outstanding contribution to scholarship is this history of Paris - ‘véritable monument de la plus vaste érudition, recueil d’une incomparable richesse dans laquelle on puisé et puisent encore tous ceux qui s’occupent de la géographie et des antiquités de l’Ile-de-France’ - Biographie universelle, vol.23, p.457. P. Dollinger et al., Bibliographie d’histoire des villes de France, D641. Book # 6/056. £300 LE ROUX DE LINCY, Adrien Jean Victor. Le livre des proverbes français précédé de recherches historiques sur les proverbes français et leur emploi dans la littérature du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance. Second édition revue, corrigée et augmentée. Paris: Adolphe Delahays, 1859. 2 vols. Marbled boards, leather-backed, showing signs of wear. Top edge gilt. Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s copy. This work by a medievalist, bibliographer and sometime librarian at the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, is still one of the best collections of French proverbs with a valuable introductory essay on their history and use in literature. The arrangement is by series, according to subject, and within each series alphabetically by key-word. There is also an index of key-words. W. Bonser & T.A. Stephens, Proverb literature: a bibliography, no.1935. Book # 6/060. £80 LE ROUX, Philibert Joseph. Dictionnaire comique, satyrique, critique, burlesque, libre & proverbial. Amsterdam: Michel Charles Le Cene, 1718. 8vo. [4], 540p. Contemporary sheep; both boards dilapidated but internally a sound copy. ‘Un ouvrage écrit en assez mauvais style, mais curieux, qui contient une nomenclature du bas langage et a été souvent réédité.’ Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle, vol.10, p.397. W. Bonser & T.A. Stephens, Proverb literature: a bibliography, no.1034, draw attention to the work’s usefulness in the identification of obscure proverbs. This is the first edition. Book # 6/058. £110 LE ROUX, Philibert Joseph. Dictionnaire comique, satyrique, critique, burlesque, libre et proverbial. Avec une explication tres-fidele de toutes les manières de parler burlesques, comiques, libres, satyriques, critiques & proverbiales, qui peuvent se rencontrer dans les meilleurs auteurs, tant anciens que modernes. Le tout pour faciliter aux étrangers, & aux françois mêmes, l'intelligence de toutes sortes de livres. Nouvelle édition, revue & corrigée. Lion: chez les Héritiers de Beringos fratres, 1752. 8vo. 2 vols in 1. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt, slightly rubbed at joints and corners. Book # 6/059. £150 MÉNAGE, Gilles. Menagiana ou les bons mots, les pensées critiques, historiques, morales & d'du Monsieur Ménage, recueillies par ses amis. Seconde édition. Paris: Florentin & Pierre Delaulne, 1694. 12mo. [32], 396, [14]p. 14-page manuscript key bound in at end. Contemporary calf, chipped at foot of spine. Despite his accomplishments as a philologist, Ménage was never elected to the Académie française, though he did become a member of the Accademia della Crusca. He was a frequenter of the Hôtel Rambouillet - the intellectual centre of Parisian society in the early 17th century - but he was quarrelsome by nature and had disputes with Bouhours, Cotin and others, and he was satirized as Vadius in Molière’s Les femmes savantes. Menagiana is a collection of Ménage’s sayings, observations, anecdotes and miscellanies, prepared by him and first published in 1693 after his death. Amongst Ménage’s other works were his observations on the Aminta of Tasso; a translation, with commentary, of Diogenes Laertius, etymologies of the Italian language, and a collection of satires. Book # 6/061. £55 MÉNAGE, Gilles. Menagiana, ou les bons mots ... Troisième édition, plus ample de moitié, & plus correcte que les précédentes. Paris: Florentin Delaulne, 1715. 12mo. 4 vols. Contemporary calf; bookplates removed. A greatly expanded edition. Book # 6/062. £120 MÉNAGE, Gilles. Observations sur la langue françoise. Paris: Claude Barbin, 1672. 12mo. [8], 421, [27]p. A few pages lightly browned. Contemporary calf, worn at corners and joints. Bookplate of H.P. Ringuet. These Observations were intended to complete the Remarques su la langue françoise (1647) of Vaugelas. ‘Ménage a essayé de garder les vieux mots et les termes provinciaux, et il consultait davantage Amyot et Montaigne que les blondins de la Cour. La critique érudite mais pédante de ce défenseur des traditions n’a pas exercé une influence très considérable. Bien qu’il connût, beaucoup mieux que Vaugelas et les académiciens, l’histoire de notre langue, et bien qu’il fût doué d’esprit critique, Ménage, comme le dit justement F. Brunot, "n’a pas été un homme d’opposition, mais seulement un dissident, et encore un dissident par intermittences, qui se prend lui aussi à légiférer avec la même rigueur arbitraire que ceux qu’il combat." - G, Matoré, Histoire des dictionnaires français, pp.73-4. Goldsmith M852. Book # 6/063.£150 MIÈGE, Guy & BOYER, Abel. Grammaire angloise-françoise ... Revue & corrigée par M. Mather Flint. Paris: chez Briasson, David l’ainé, 1750. 12mo. [8], 420, [3]p. Small tear in t.p. and in S3. Contemporary calf, worn. Guy Miège was born and educated at Lausanne and came to England in 1661, though he continued to travel abroad as under-secretary to the ambassador to Russia, Sweden and Denmark. His writings on language are of interest for the insights they give into the pronunciation of English in the late 17th century. Miège’s own pronunciation was fundamentally Scottish-Northern probably modified by educated London usage. Abel Boyer was one of the most influential figures in the development of French grammar and lexigography in the same period. His Royal dictionary is an important source for the accentuation of English before the mid 18th century. Alston, vol.2, no.227. Book # 6/065. £70 MIZAULD, Antoine. De hortensium arborum insitione opusculum, Antonii Mizaldi Monluciani studio et diligentia concinnatum. Eiusdem Dendranatome, hoc est partiu[m] corporis arborei explicatio brevis: ubi de earundem nutritione. Lutetiae: apud Federicum Morellum, 1560. 8vo. 28ff. Some slight browning. Contemporary vellum. Printer's device on title. 18th-century ownership inscription and library stamp on title page. A treatise on the grafting of trees. Mizauld (1510?-1578) studied at Bourges and at Paris and at first devoted himself to medicine. Later, along with Oronce Finé, he turned to astrology and the secrets of Nature (he was astrologer to Marguerite de Valois). J.P. Niceron (Mémoires, vol.40, pp.200-13) credits Mizauld with the authorship of 41 books including works on comets, astrology, cosmography, sympathy and antipathy, almanacs, mathematics, agriculture and gardening. De Thou commends him for his learning; Niceron, however, complains of his books being stuffed with false and useless notions. Bound with: DIOCLES Carystius. Aurea ad Antigonum regem epistola, de morborum praesagiis, & eorumdem exte[m]poraneis remediis. Adhaec, Arnaldi a Villa-Nova ... de salubri hortensium usu. Antonii Mizaldi ... cura & diligentia. Lutetiae: apud Federicum Morelleum, 1572. 8vo. [4], 27, [1]ff. According to Pliny, Diocles was the second physician after Hippocrates in time and fame, a contemporary of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). His writings dealt with animal anatomy, physiology, aetiology, symptomatology, prognostics, dietetics and botany. The surviving fragments show the influence of the Sicilian School of Empedocles (four humours, importance of the heart, the pneuma), of Hippocrates (the body considered as organism), of Aristotle (methodological concepts and terminology). Diocles’ originality consists in uniting these different trends. See W. Jaeger, Diokles von Karystos. Item 1: Adams M1497; Wellcome I, 4353; J. Dumoulin, Vie et oeuvres de Fédéric Morel, 38; not in the Hunt Catalogue. Item 2: Adams D466; Wellcome I, 1762; Dumoulin, 200. Book # 6/066. £330 MOLIÈRE, Jean Baptiste Poquelin, called. Oeuvres complètes de Molière. Nouvelle édition imprimée sur celles de 1679 et 1682, avec des notes explicatives sur les mots qui ont vieilli. Ornée de portraits en pied coloriés représentant les principaux personnages de chaque pièce. Dessins de MM. Geffroy, sociétaire de la Comédie française, et Maurice Sand. Gravures de MM. Wolf et Manceau. Précédée d'une introduction par Jules Janin. Paris: Laplace, Sanchez et Cie, 1875. Fol. xv, 649, [2]p. Text in 2 columns. Hand-coloured frontispiece + 19 hand-coloured plates of characters in Molière's plays. Quarter maroon leather, marbled boards, scuffed at corners and edges. "Molière may be said to have created modern French comedy by giving it a serious basis, where there had previously been little but farces and comedies of intrigue on Italian and Spanish models. His genius lay in his ability to combine profound personal observations of human nature in its complexity and in its foibles with the power of presenting these in their amusing aspect, that is to say short of the point where they turn to tragedy (though some of his greatest comedies reach the boundary). His lighter pieces, on the other hand, shine by their gaiety and absurdity. He was thus a master both of high comedy and farce." - P. Harvey, Oxford companion to French literature. In this edition the frontispiece is a somewhat fanciful portrait of Molière designed by H. Allouard and etched by Monnin. Cf. Catalogue of the Molière collection in Harvard College Library acquired chiefly from the library of the late Ferdinand Bôcher, compiled by Ernest Lewis Gay, items 84 & 89. Cf. Henri Levallois, Catalogue des ouvrages de Molière conservés au Département des Imprimés et dans les bibliothèques Mazarine, Sainte-Geneviève, de l'Arsenal et de l'Université de Paris, nos 283, 284. Book # 6/134. £84 OLIVET, Pierre Joseph Thoulier d’. Traité de la prosodie françoise. Paris: chez Gandouin, 1736. 12mo. 138, [6]p. Contemporary mottled calf (slightly worn at joints and corners). Voltaire, in a letter written to Olivet on 5 January 1767, said of the Traité de la prosodie: ‘Tous ceux qui parle en public doivent étudier votre traité de la prosodie, c’est un livre classique qui durera autant que la langue française.’ The abbé Olivet was at one time tutor to Voltaire and in later life ‘received’ Voltaire into the Académie française. Bound with: FLINT, Mather. Prononciation de la langue angloise, avec un traité de son accent et de sa prosodie à l’usage des françois. Paris: chez Didot, 1740. 12mo. xvi, 133, [5]p. ‘One of the very best contemporary expositions of English speech in the two or three decades before the middle of the 18th century ... Compared with the works of his predecessors and of a good many of his successors, Flint’s Prononciation frequently impresses one as being almost modern in outlook and organization.’ - H. Kökeritz, Mather Flint on early 18th-century English pronunciation, Uppsala, 1944. Alston II, 331. Book # 6/071. £140 PANCKOUCKE, André-Joseph. Dictionnaire des proverbes françois, et des façons de parler comiques, burlesques et familieres, &c. Avec l'explication, et les étymologies les plus avérées. P.J.P.D.L.N.D.L.E.F. Paris: chez Savoye, 1758. 12mo. [4], vi, [4], 488p. Paper flaw on V1 affecting 3 letters. Contemporary mottled sheep, worn at joints. A member of a distinguished family of 18th and 19th-century publishers, originally of Bruges and later of Lille, Panckoucke wrote burlesque poems, which were sometimes attacks on Voltaire, and compiled various manuals and dictionaries, notably this one on proverbs. First published in shorter form some ten years earlier, this 1758 edition is the most complete. W. Bonser & T.A. Stephens, Proverb literature: a bibliography, no.1077. Book # 6/073. £80 PARIS - Salon, 1800. Explication des ouvrages de peinture et dessins, sculpture, architecture et gravure, des artistes vivans, exposés au Muséum central des Arts ... le 15 fructidor, an VII de la République française. Paris: de l’Imprimerie des Sciences et Arts, an VIII de la République [1800]. 12mo. [4], 96p. Slight damp-staining at lower margin. Modern marbled boards. The seventh Salon held under the Republic, with 282 exhibitors (including 30 women) and 542 exhibits. From 1673, annual or biennial exhibitions of the works of living artists became a feature of Paris life. The Revolution continued this legacy of the Ancien Régime but transformed it. The Salon instead of being a semi-private exhibition of the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, became public and international, open to all artists (though the flood of entries led in 1798 to the introduction of a jury system for prospective exhibitors). Secondly, public viewing of the exhibits was greatly liberalised. And thirdly, the Salon’s original function - to publicise new works of art - was enlarged with awards of substantial financial prizes. See F. Benoît, L’art francais sous la Révolution et l’Empire, ch.3. Book # 6/075. £50 PERRIN, Jean Baptiste. A grammar of the French tongue ... According to the second edition, printed at London. Philadelphia: printed by Styner and Cist, 1779. 8vo. xii, [2], 320p. Small hole in U1 affecting 4 letters. Contemporary calf, worn. Perrin was born in France and became a teacher of French to the Irish gentry. He mixed in the political agitations of the 1780s and is said in 1795 to have joined in the invitation to the French government to invade Ireland. He was the author of numerous works on the French language and also of Fables amusantes (1771). Alston XII (i), 430; Evans 16461. Book # 6/078. £75 PLUCHE, Noël-Antoine. La mécanique des langues, et l’art de les enseigner. Paris: Veuve Estienne & Fils, 1751. 12mo. [4], xxiv, 340, [4]p. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt, slightly worn. In his preface the author compares ‘notre méthode d’apprendre les langues savantes, avec la manière dont les Romains apprenoient la langue d’Athènes’. He deplores the demise of Greek and Latin in France: ‘A quoi se terminent en effet les études de la plûpart des jeunes gens? le Grec est pour eux un pays inconnue; & quand ils s’avanturent de marcher sans guide dans le latin des bons auteurs, ils n’y trouvent qu’obstacles, que fatigues, & qu’obscurité. Tout les rebute. Personne n’ignore ce qui se passe parmi nous à cet égard. c’est le même train en Espagne & en Italie.’ Cioranescu 50665. Book # 6/079. £90 RACINE, Louis. Religion, a poem: from the French of the younger Racine. London: printed by W. Strahan; and sold by J. Hodges; J. Newbery; W. Owen; A. Strahan; and Wilson and Durham, 1754. 8vo. xii, 216p. Title slightly discoloured. Contemporary calf, gilt; slight wear at corners. Armorial bookplate of the House of Abercairny. Seventh and last child of Jean Racine, Louis Racine is best known for his prose translation of Milton's Paradise lost and for two didactic poems of Jansenist inspiration: La grâce (1720) and La religion (1742). Louis Racine explained the conception of the latter poem as follows: 'J'en ai conduit le plan sur cette courte pensée de M. Pascal: A ceux qui ont de la répugnance pour la religion, il faut commencer par leur montrer qu'elle n'est pas contraire à la raison; ensuite, qu'elle est vénérable; après, la rendre aimable, faire souhaiter qu'elle soit vraie; montrer qu'elle est vraie, et enfin qu'elle est aimable.' This English translation is the work of the educationalist James Elphinston (see Dictionary of national biography, vol.17, p.311). Book # 6/096. £55 ROUBAUD, Pierre Joseph André. Nouveaux synonymes françois. Paris: Moutard, 1785-6. 8vo. 4 vols. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt. Arms of Comte de Montréal at foot of spine. The author was one of the chief editors of the Journal du commerce and the Journal d’agriculture. Awarded a pension of 3,000 livres by Necker in 1776, he then devoted himself to this work on synonyms, which, with the blessing of the Académie française, became a classic reference work. Roubaud is also known for his Politique indien (1768) and his Histoire générale de l’Asie, de l’Afrique et de l’Amérique (1770-75). Book # 6/084. £145 SAINT FOIX, Germain-François Poullain de. Oeuvres complettes. Paris: chez la Veuve Duchesne, 1778. 8vo. 6 vols. Titles and half-titles printed in red and black; 3 plates. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt, a little worn. Saint Foix began life as a soldier but later settled in Paris where for 20 years he was much in demand as a playwright excelling in one-act comedies in prose. Encouraged by the success of Pandore at the Théâtre-Français, Saint Foix went on to further successes at the Théâtre-Italien: La veuve à la mode, Le philosophe dupe de l’amour, Le contraste de l’Amour et de l’Hymen. His libretto Deucalion et Pirrhe, ballet (1756) has recently attracted attention as ‘a unique example of one kind of aristocratic art, a species in which extreme elevation of expression combines with virtually flawless employment of the unities.’ - W.E. Rex, Sobering reflections on a forgotten French opera libretto, Eighteenth-century studies, vol.16, pp.389-400. Saint Foix also wrote several historical works including Essais historiques sur Paris and Histoire de l’Ordre de Saint-Esprit. Cioranescu 58274; Cohen-De Ricci 924. Book # 6/085. £240 SCARRON, Paul. Oeuvres. Nouvelle édition, revûe, corrigée & augmentée. Paris: chez David père, Durand, Pissot, 1752. 12mo. 2 vols. Contemporary calf, gilt. Spines chipped at foot. Edges marbled. In 1652 Scarron married a beautiful but penniless orphan, Françoise d’Aubigné; his action in rescuing her from a convent she rewarded by fostering his literary reputation in her salon. She later became famous as Madame de Maintenon. Scarron owes his lasting reputation to his lead in creating the ‘realistic’ novel as a reaction against the ‘idealistic’ novels of d’Urfé and Mlle de Scudéry. Though the burlesque constantly supervenes, there are in his works genuine elements of satire, of vigorous genre descriptions in the Dutch manner and of pyschological realism. Book # 6/086. £70 SCARRON, Paul. Le Virgile travesti en vers burlesques. Paris: chez Michel David, 1705. 12mo. 2 vols. Small paper flaw in P10 of vol.1 affecting 4 letters. Contemporary calf, worn. Scarron made his name as the author of burlesque verse (Recueil de quelques vers burleques, 1643). In 1644 appeared his Typhon, five cantos of jocosity describing the wars of the giants against the gods. His most famous work in this vein is his Virgile travesti (1648), a parody of Virgil which was never finished consisting of eight cantos of scurrilous octo-syllables. Book # 6/088. £55 VOLTAIRE, François-Marie Arouet. Histoire de Charles XII, roi de Suède. Nouvelle édition soigneusement corrigée par P.N. Rabaudy. Lndres: de l’Imprimerie de W. Flint, pour J. Mawman; T. Boosey; & Dulau, 1803. 12mo. xxii, 296, [22]p. Last leaf of Table misbound between p.xxii and p.1. Mottled calf, worn at joints. In this work, first published in 1731 and his first attempt at history, Voltaire inaugurated the modern technique of historical investigation. He records with substantial accuracy the life of Charles XII and the vicissitudes of his struggle with Peter the Great. The book’s philosophic conclusion is that a career of conquest is inferior to that of a pacific and beneficent monarch. This edition not found in Bengesco. Book # 6/092. £20 YOUNG, Edward. Les Nuits d’Young, traduction de Le Tourneur, suivies de l’Élégie de Gray sur un cimitière de campagne, traduite par le même, et en vers par M.-J. Chénier. Nouvelle édition. Paris: H. Langlois fils, et Le Bailly, 1828. 12mo. 2 vols in 1. 1 plate (though the t.p. says ‘ornée de deux vignettes’. Marbled boards, leather-backed, slightly worn. Slight damp-staining on a few leaves. The influence of Young’s Night thoughts on the rise of European romanticism is strikingly illustrated by the number of translations that spread across Europe from Moscow to Lisbon and from Christiana to Palermo. The first complete translation into French, the work of Pierre Le Tourneur, appeared in 1769. In his introduction the translator announced frankly: ‘The poem of the Nights or Complaints presents numerous faults which it is almost as easy to avoid as perceive; but it is nevertheless the most sublime elegy on the miseries of the human condition.’ The translation was an instant success with the French public and the critics. H. Forster, Edward Young in translation: checklist 1749-1881, item 1828(a), The Book Collector, vol.20, p.219. Book # 6/095. £30
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