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Les Caractères

1688100 x 164 mm

RARE ORIGINAL EDITION OF THE CHARACTERS in contemporary bookbinding.

4 500 

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Description

Theophrastus' Characters translated from Greek. With The Characters or Customs of this Century.

RARE ORIGINAL EDITION OF THE HEATHER CHARACTERS CONTAINING 418 CHARACTERS AND 24 BOXES.

THREE STATES OF THE FIRST PRINT RUN ARE DESCRIBED BY BIBLIOGRAPHERS:

  • The first state is unknown : "We don't know of a first edition copy without boxes..."Tchemerzine.
  • The second state, "an intermediate state", possesses: a table without numerical cross-references; the Privilege, dated October 8, 1687, with no time limit; an errata leaf with vertical pontoons. It is an intermediate state with between 10 and 25 boxes, with pagination errors and mistakes in the text. Initially counted at 6 copies, we know today more than ten copies of this second edition.which for the most part have a different number of cartons, pagination errors and mistakes, testifying to the corrections made by La Bruyère during printing.
  • The third state contains 26 cartons, the Privilege dated October 8, 1687 and granted for 10 years, an errata sheet with horizontal pontoons and pagination errors are corrected.

THIS COPY HAS ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECOND STATE. With 24 cartons, it's one of the last printouts of the very first known state.
(Detailed sheet on request)

Copy bound in calfskin, at the time, in a cover very close to the copy by Louis Barthou and Charles Exbrayat.
It was protected in the 1930s in a shirt case signed Szekely.

Ancient manuscript ex-libris on the title and the guards: Francissi de Belloÿ.

Tchemerzine, III, 791; Le Petit, Bibliography of Original Editions, 428-433 ; In French in the textNo. 124; Rochebilière, No. 605; Barthou, I, No. 41; Exbrayat, No. 26.

Paris,Etienne Michallet,1688.In-12, Bound,100 x 164 mm,(1) f. bl., title, (29) ff. n. ch., pp. 53-360 pp., (1) f. d'excerpt of tabbed lien, (1) f. d'errata, (1) f. bl.

Signatures: A-B12, C6, C3-C12, D-P12, Q (lien slip). The errata slip is not signed.

Full brown calf of the period, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurons, gilt title, gilt roulette on the cups.

Restored top cap and corners, scratch marks on the dishes.

Bio

Jean de La Bruyère

(born in Paris on 16 August 16451 and died in Versailles on 11 May 1696)

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