[Rarebooks] fa: DE SADE - MEMOIRES POUR LA VIE DE PETRARQUE [PETRARCH] 1764-67 - 3 vols/CALF

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, January 20. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/boyw7qe

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Jacques-Francois Paul Aldonse de Sade:] Memoires pour la Vie de François Petrarque, tires de ses Oeuvres et des Auteurs contemporains, Avec des Notes ou Dissertations, & les Pieces justificatives. Amsterdam [Avignon]: chez Arskee & Mercus, 1764-1767. FIRST EDITION. Three volumes, large 4tos (26 cm), in period full calf with gilt-lettered morocco spine labels; [4], cxix, [1], 447, [1], 79, [1] pp.; [4], xxiv, 495, [1], 82, [2] pp.; [4], 811, [1], 88 pp.; half-titles in vols. I & II; engraved vignettes,  woodcut decorations and initials.

An important and handsomely produced life of Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), this is the chef d'oeuvre of the abbe Jacques-Francois de Sade (1705-1778), cleric, man of letters and uncle of the "Divine Marquis" de Sade. Worldly and something of a libertine himself, the abbé was responsible for his young nephew's education and probably played a significant role in the boy's rather peculiar emotional and intellectual development.

Bindings with some rubbing, bumping and wear to the extremities; hinges cracked but boards are secure; mild toning to the leaves with a few occasional small spots; vol. II with damp-staining (mostly light) to the bottom fore-corner of the first 30-40 leaves, vol. III with some worming to the margins of the first and last leaves; otherwise quite clean and crisp, firmly bound. Early ownership inscription to the title-pages ("Newtoune Edmondstone"). A handsome set.