RABELAIS (François). Œuvres. À Amsterdam, chez Jean-Frédéric - Lot 12

RABELAIS (François). Œuvres. À Amsterdam, chez Jean-Frédéric Bernard, 1741. 3 volumes in-4, (8including 2ndand 4thblanks)-xxxvi-526 +(4including 2 blank versos)-xxxiv-381[numbered 3 to 383]-(one blank) +(14including 2ndand 4thblanks)-220[misnumbered 1 to 144 and 147 to 218]-150-(38including last 3d blank) pp., brown marbled calf, spine ribbed, cloisonné and fleuronné with brown title and giblets, triple cold fillet framing the boards, filleted edges, red edges; some spotting on the boards, marginal tears on the last leaves of the first volume (contemporary binding). "Highly sought-after edition" (Avenir Tchemerzine, t.V, p.319), established with critical apparatus by the Protestant lawyer and scholar Jacob Le Duchat (1658-1735), embellished in the appendix with a selection of remarks on Rabelais by the humanist Guillaume Budé, the Protestant scholar, writer, translator and publisher Pierre LeMotteux, etc. Beautiful copper-engraved illustration. 21 plates hors texte, including: 2titres-frontispices by Bernard Picart, a frontispiece with a portrait of Rabelais by Jacob Folkema, a portrait of Rabelais by Pieter Tanje, a fold-out map, 3 fold-out views of Rabelais' house, a depiction of the "dive bouteille", 12compositions after Louis-Fabritius Dubourg by Balthasar Bernaerts, Jacob Folkema and Pieter Tanjé. In the text: 25 illustrations by Bernard Picart, several of which are repeated. Provenance: a knight of Malta (bookplate vignette bearing arms similar to those of the Burgundian Cromot family, on the first flyleaf of vol.III).