BOILEAU DESPRÉAUX, Nicolas.
Oeuvres. Avec des éclaircissemens historiques, donnez par lui-même.
Amsterdam, David Mortier, 1718. 2 volumes. Folio. With a richly engraved allegorical frontispiece, incorporating a portrait of the author, an engraved vignette with portrait of Erasmus on the title page of both volumes, both titles are printed in red and black, all text pages are set within a fine typographical woodcut border, an engraved part-title, 6 full-page engraved plates, 2 engraved headpieces, 2 engraved initials, and 27 engraved tailpieces by Bernard Picart.
Late 18th or early 19th-century gold-tooled straight-grain dark blue morocco, with the title and imprint lettered in gold on the spine, a single fillet and two ornamental borders on both boards, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt and gauffered edges, orange end papers. [4], XVIII, [4], 450; [4], VII, [1], 370, [20] pp.
€ 2,950
First deluxe edition of the collected works of Nicolas Boileau Despréaux (1636-1711), printed on high quality laid paper, with every text page set within an ornamental border. "Elle se recommande et par sa belle execution typogr. et par d'assez bonnes estampes ou vignettes" (Brunet). David Mortier published several editions of the work from 1714 onwards, but the present is the first annotated edition, as well as the first illustrated one, and has been richly adorned with beautiful engraved illustrations and tailpieces by Bernard Picart (1673-1733). The present copy comes from the library of John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), first Viscount of Mersey.
Boileau Despréaux was one of the most famous French poets of the 17th century, as he reformed the prevailing form of French poetry. The present collection includes his satires and letters, several songs, the six-part Le Lutrin, with numerous poems, odes, sonnets, and epigrams, as well as his important French translation of On the sublime by Longinus, which made Longinus' ideas on literary criticism available to a wider audience for the first time.
Picart was famous French draughtsman and engraver, a pupil of Sébastien le Clerc, who came to live in the Netherlands in 1710, and gave new impetus to Dutch book illustration. He illustrated the present deluxe 1718 edition of Boileau Despréaux' work, as well as a second deluxe edition from 1729. Although Mortier published several other editions and issues of the work, these two deluxe editions are the only ones that have been illustrated.
With the bookplate of John Charles Bigham (1840-1929), Viscount of Mersey, and the label of Viscount Mersey, Bignor Park mounted on the front pastedown of both volumes, a bookseller's description mounted on the opposing page in the first volume. The boards are somewhat scratched, the edges are somewhat scuffed. Lacking the folding portrait of the dedicatee, Charlotte, princess of Wales, and the final blank of volume 1, occasional minor foxing. Otherwise in good condition. Brunet I, col. 1058-1059; Cohen-De Ricci 165-166; STCN 191962147 (4 copies); cf. E. de la Fontaine Verwey, Illustr. Letterk.18e eeuw, p. 30 ff.
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