LaBruyère (Jean de). LesCaractères. ÀParis, chez Hochereau; - Lot 8

LaBruyère (Jean de). LesCaractères. ÀParis, chez Hochereau; et Panckoucke, 1765. Large in-4, wide-margined copy (29,2x21,8cm), viii-484pp, garnet morocco, ribbed spine with black title page, triple gilt fillet framing the boards, filleted edges, inner gilt roulette, gilt edges; spine slightly faded, one yellowed card (f.Mmm1), a few freckles (contemporary binding). Pierre Coste's critical edition, which also includes Jean de LaBruyère's translation of Théophraste's Caractères and his acceptance speech to the Académie française. An exiled Huguenot scholar, Pierre Coste had already published in 1701-1703 a Défense de LaBruyère in the Amsterdam Marteau edition of Les Caractères, reprinted in 1720 in the Amsterdam Wetstein edition. He had first published his own commented edition of Les Caractères in 1731 with Changuion, also in Amsterdam, enlarged in 1739 with the same publisher, and reprinted with corrections in 1750 in Paris with David. The present 1765 edition follows that of 1739. Copperplate illustration: portrait-frontispiece by Louis-Jacques Cathelin after Jean de Saint-Jean, 5 vignettes in the text after drawings by Hubert-François Bourguignon d'Anville dit Gravelot by Antoine-Jean Duclos and Jacques-Philippe LeBas. Provenance: "Adam" (handwritten ex-libris on title), then William Vincens Bouguereau (ex-libris vignette engraved on copperplate).