“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)

Click the near image for an enlargement.

Bindings: Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in gilt single fillet and blind-embossed using a single elaborately worked plaque, spines gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls surrounding corners. All edges marbled.

•  Brunet, II, 1614. Bindings as above, corners and spine extremities showing minor rubbing. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate and institutional rubber-stamp, versos of front fly-leaves also rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some light foxing, mostly to first and last few leaves; a few signatures unopened. Four publisher’s leaflets advertising Greek and Latin classics and other works are laid in. Elegant, and interesting.

•  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.

The six plates, of which three are oversized and folding, were engraved by Huet after the author’s drawings; they include an elevation and cross-section of the Great Pyramid (a chart of measurements of that pyramid, among the earliest accurate measurements published, is also present).

•  Contemporary half morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; front cover expertly reattached, paper a bit darkened. Front pastedown with rubber-stamp of an old diocesan library (no other institutional markings), front free endpaper, half-title, and title-page with inked, 19th-century ownership inscriptions. Preface page with small paper adhesions in upper margin; laid-in leaf as above. Light foxing (and none worse) throughout. Inner edge of one folding plate slightly ragged. A good, and now quite strong, copy.

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.

•  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)

•  Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra; binding sprung, leather starting to peel back from rubbed corners and edges, back cover cracked with crack extending into foot of spine and spine lacking title-label, leather chipped at spine extremities. Front free endpaper lacking; title-page verso with early inked presentation inscription in French. Many leaves with light to moderate waterstaining in margins, extending into text in some cases. Not at all so sad a case as detailing of faults suggests; price reduced, for the faults, nonetheless.  (24390)

•  Publisher’s red cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title within decorative border, quite elegant, and spine with gilt-stamped title; corners bumped, binding otherwise showing virtually no wear save for a small “tick” of dent to front outer edge. A clean, attractive, very good copy.

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.