OVIDE. LesMétamorphoses. ÀParis, chez Delormel (vol.I-III) e - Lot 11

OVIDE. LesMétamorphoses. ÀParis, chez Delormel (vol.I-III) et chez Despilly (vol.IV), 1767-1771. 4volumes large in-4, wide-margin copy, 25,3x19,3cm; (4of which the 2 versos are blank)-xc-(2)-264 +viii-355-(uneblanche) +viii-360 +viii-367-8 pp., bilingual text printed in Latin and French, garnet-red morocco, spine ribbed, cloisonné and fleuronné with black title and tomaison, triple gilt fillet framing the boards with corner fleurons, filleted edges, gilt inner border, gilt edges over marbled boards; boards slightly stained, 2 small tears at the spine of vol.II, some marginal wetness, several yellowed leaves, some foxing (period binding). Edition whose privilege was shared by several associated booksellers, including Charles-Guillaume Leclerc, Pierre-Nicolas Delormel and Jean-Baptiste Despilly. French translation with commentary by Abbé Antoine Banier, originally published in 1732. One of the great illustrated books of the eighteenth century. The booksellers associated with its publication commissioned two series of copper engravings to illustrate it. The first was entrusted to a large team of artists under the direction of François Basan and Noël LeMire, including François Boucher, Pierre-Phillipe Choffard, Charles Eisen, Hubert-François Bourgignon d'Anville dit Gravelot, Charles Monnet, Jean-Michel Moreau dit Moreau le Jeune, for the draftsmen, and among others François Basan, Noël LeMire, Jean-Jacques LeVeau, Jean Massard, for the engravers, who supplied a suite of 164 engravings, all stamped outside the text, i.e.: 140plates numbered 1to140 (a title-frontispiece and 139scenes), a final unnumbered cul-de-lampe, 3pp.of unnumbered dedication embossed on 2 ff. of plates, one recto-verso, and 20pages of table embossed on 10ff. of recto-verso plates. Note that the engraved title introduces the suite rather than the text proper (LesMétamorphoses d'Ovide gravées sur les desseins des meilleurs peintres français) and bears the address of the two artists who directed the production of the suite (ÀParis, chez Basan, LeMire, s.d.), just as the engraved dedication to the Duc de Chartres is signed by LeMire and Basan alone. The associated booksellers then commissioned a second iconographic program, this time intended to illustrate the volumes in the text, entrusted to Pierre-Philippe Choffard, who worked alone or after Charles Monnet, comprising 34vignettes, i.e. 4 to the titles, and 30bandeaux placed in pairs at the head of the 15books of Ovid's text and his translation. Provenance: baron de Noirmont (handwritten bookplate, partly faded), then William Vincens Bouguereau (bookplate vignette).