[Rarebooks] fa: BAILLET & LA MONNOYE: JUGEMENS DES SAVANS 1722 - LA MONNOYE'S COPY w/ His Extensive MS NOTES & REVISIONS

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, February 28. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/hx2fmaj

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Adrien Baillet; Bernard de la Monnoye, ed.: Jugemens des Savans sur les Principaux Ouvrages des Auteurs... Revus, corrigees, & augmentes par M. De la Monnoye de l'Academie Francoise. Paris: ches Charles Moette, Charles le Clerc [et al], 1722. First edition thus. Six volumes only, of seven (lacking vol. IV); 4to (25.5 cm), in full period calf with gilt-ruled borders, raised spine bands with gilt-lettered leather title labels and extra gilt designs in compartments, gilt board edges; red page edges, marbled endpapers; [24], 404, [2]; [6], 680, [18]; [2], 464, [4]; [2], 461, [16]; [14], 555 [5]; [10], 388, [104] pp.; engraved frontispiece portrait, ornamental head- and tail-pieces and initials. Petzholdt 27-28. Besterman 813.

Bernard de La Monnoye's own copy, the final blank leaves of each volume with extensive annotations in his precise and often astonishingly tiny handwriting, including corrections to the printed corrections, revisions, emendations, citations, supplementary material, additional page notes, etc. These voluminous annotations, sometimes filling more than two leaves and occasionally popping up in the text itself or on slips of paper affixed to the leaves, were presumably intended for a later edition of the work. La Monnoye (1641-1728) was a poet, critic, philologist, bibliophile, historian, antiquarian, hymnist and writer of Christmas carols, member of the Academie, contributor to Bayle's dictionary — in short, the epitome of "the man of parts and learning." And apparently a prodigious scribbler of such notes and revisions, as evidenced by the entry for him in A General Dictionary, Historical and Critical (London: 1738), in which we learn that "Mr. de la Monnoye, indeed, made many corrections in [the history of Bayle and his works], but they are still in manuscript"; and later: "Mr. de la Monnoye wrote notes on the Bibliotheques Francoises of la Croix du Maine, and Du Verdier Vau Privas, but these notes are not yet printed..." Late in life, la Monnoye suffered the twin blows of losing his beloved wife of many years and losing his fortune in the Mississippi Bubble. This conjures a poignant image (in our minds, at least) of the lonely, impoverished, but indomitable octogenarian laboring away by candlelight over these notes that the world would likely never see.

An encyclopedic compendium of critical and scholarly estimates of the work of writers ancient and modern. Contents include: Abrege de la vie de Baillet - Des jugements sur les livres en general - Des Prejuges des  Nations - Jugements des principaux imprimeurs. - Critiques historiques et critiques grammairiens - Traducteurs et art poetique - Enfants celebres et auteurs deguises. VII. : Satires personnelles qui portent le titre d'ANTI. Bindings occasionally rubbed and scuffed, corners bumped, wear to the edges and extremities, several joints cracked but the boards are secure; a few leaves with creases and edge wear, contents with scattered foxing and some browning, but generally quite clean and crisp, firmly bound.