“Essai sur l'Etude de la Littérature,”

The work was additionally printed in Dublin and Basil in the same year. OCLC notes that a third volume was printed almost ten years later, by J. Murray; that supplementary volume is not present here.

Signed binding: Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt rolls, beautifully rebacked with gilt-stamped spines preserving handsome original gilt-stamped, two-color leather title and volume labels, turn-ins with gilt rolls. Front pastedown of vol. I with binder's ticket: “Pigge Binders, Lynn.”

A charming silhouette of Gibbon serves as frontispiece to volume I.

•  ESTC T79696; Allibone 663; Brunet, II, 1586; Norton, Gibbon, 131.   Bindings as above with original leather showing some scuffs and abrasions; gilt on original spine labels a little (but a little only) dimmed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Final page of each volume, back pastedown of vol. I, and title-page of vol. II institutionally rubber-stamped; no other such marks. Intermittent spots of light foxing. A lovely, wide-margined, archetypically “18th-century” quarto production for this quintessentially 18th-century writer.  (23770)

•  A copy in lovely condition, imperceptibly rebacked with the original spine retained. Original wrappers bound in. Protected in a crimson morocco-edged slipcase.

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•  Original printed wrappers; dusty, with chipping, and front one now separated. Paper lost at top of spine along front joint. The whole, fragile and wanting to separate between signatures. (Our interior image tends a bit to pink tone that is not actually present, FYI.) Now housed in a simple acid-free phase box.

Over60 large woodcuts illustrate the text, with some images appearing in both sections. The volume concludes with several poems on the themes of life, death, and the afterlife.

Uncommon: We trace only nine copies in the U.S., all but one in libraries east of the Mississippi.

•  Fairfax-Murray, French, 108; Morin, Bibliothèque bleue de Troyes, 435; Nisard, Histoire des Livres Populaires, II, 303. Binding with minor scuffing at corners and old (good) repairs to head and foot of spine, with leather starting to crack over joints; hinges tender. Pages slightly age-toned, with signature marks shaved.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Brunet, III, 39; Osler, Biblotheca Osleriana, 5950 (first ed.). 19th-century quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and raised bands ruled in gilt fillets; edges and spine moderately rubbed, paper chipped over corners, corners bumped. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.

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•  Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped decorative motifs and gilt-stamped leather title label. Front pastedown with bookseller's ticket. Light waterstaining to lower inner margins of first and last sections (you can see the degree of this, at left), pages otherwise generally clean. A charming gift for a French speaker with maritime interests! (9091)

Binding:  19th-century crushed half black levant morocco over black and white marbled paper; binding signed on verso of front free endpaper, but stamp mostly indecipherable. Spine with raised bands, gilt above, below, and on each; gilt-tooled skull and crossbones in three compartments, a flame in two others, and author and title in the remaining one. Gilt rule where the half leather meets the marbled paper on each cover. Green and red French swirl marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon place marker. All leaves tipped to stubs. Uncut copy.

•  Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death, pp. 79–80; NSTC B3545.   Binding as above. Joints and edges of covers lightly rubbed; top of front joint just starting. Age-spotting on pages and plates, generally light; some off-setting from the plates. Bookseller's catalogue description clipped and pasted to front pastedown. Dealer's letter pasted to rear pastedown. Two uncalled-for plates.  This is a pleasing, better than “decent” copy priced well below excellent ones in contemporary bindings.  (25933)

So does Batteux, one of the most eminent translators of Horace into French, describe his rationale for setting the Latin verses of Horace in prose form. Following his preface are translations of the odes (Carmina, all four books), epodes, and secular songs (Carmen Saeculare) of Horace, vis à vis with Latin verse on versos and French prose translation on facing rectos. Many of the works begin with a brief description of the poem’s content, and Batteux is generous in providing footnotes to aid the reader not well versed in Classical mythology, history, or geography. The volume is dedicated to the Dauphin (probably Louis Dauphin, son of King Louis XV of France), apparently a fan of Horace, for whom it was created.

•  Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, II: 440. Full mottled calf with gilt double-rule frame on covers; gilt spine extra, with title and "Tome I" on gilt-stamped morocco label. Slightly sprung and binding rubbed/scuffed. All edges gilt and marbled endpapers, with blue ribbon bookmark attached to headband. Old inked ownership notes (tiny) on fly-leaf. Minimal foxing, and the volume solid. Vol. I of two only, but pleasing. It would appear that Horace's Sermones, Epistulae, and Ars Poetica were the contents of vol. II.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only four U.S. institutional holdings of this edition, one of which has since been deaccessioned.

•  Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 998–99.   Period-style mottled calf framed and panelled in gilt with interior blind roll and gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title-label, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; all edges speckled. Inked corrections to contents page. Occasional light spotting or staining (some of the latter to the title-page); otherwise, age-toning only.  (25849)