BOILEAU (Nicolas). Œuvres. ÀParis, chez David, Durand, 1747. - Lot 2

BOILEAU (Nicolas). Œuvres. ÀParis, chez David, Durand, 1747. 5volumes in-8, the leaf of approval and privilege being bound here at the end of vol.IV, tortoiseshell calf, ribbed spine with partitions and fleurons with red and tobacco titles and tomaison, triple gilt fillet framing the covers with corner fleurons, filleted edges, interior gilt roulette, edges gilt on marbling; bindings a little rubbed (period binding). I: (4of which the 2 versos are blank)-lxxx-494 [numbered 1 to 138, *137, *138, 139 to 436, *433 to *436, 437 to 488]pp. -II: (10of which the 2nd, 3rdand last are blank)-492pp. -III: (8of which the 2nd, 4thand last are blank)-536pp. -IV: (6of which the 2ndand 3rd are blank)-591-(3)pp. -VI: xxii-676pp. Critical edition by the man of letters Charles-Hugues LeFebvre de Saint-Marc, with comments by Boileau himself and by Claude Brossette (1671-1743), a lawyer and scholar who had been Boileau's friend. Large copper-engraved illustration in first edition. Out of text, 7 plates, including a portrait-frontispiece after Hyacinthe Rigaud and 6 plates after Claude-Nicolas Cochin illustrating LeLutrin. In the text, 69vignettes, some repeated, including: 5titlecompositions and 39bandeaux after Charles Eisen, 25culs-de-lampe. One of the few copies on fine Hollande laid paper, reputed to contain the finest proofs. They are marked by a dot at the signature on the first leaf of each section. Provenance: bookseller, bibliographer and bibliophile Jacques-Charles Brunet (n°331 of the auction catalog of his library, 1868); bookseller Pierre Rouquette (purchaser at the Brunet sale); magistrate and bibliophile Eugène Paillet (leather and signature bookplate, n°92 of the auction catalog of the first part of his library, 1887); William Vincens Bouguereau (vignette bookplate).