De l’imprimerie de la Société Littéraire typographique, 1784-1789.
70 volumes. Large 8vo, green morocco, gilt borders around the covers, inner border, flat spines decorated with gilt designs (some slightly faded), red morocco lettering pieces, gilt edges. Some foxing inherent to the paper. Contemporary binding.
245 x 150 mm.
The most famous edition – from Kehl – on large fine paper, of Voltaire’s works, published by Beaumarchais, with Avertissements and Notes by Condorcet.
Cohen 1042-1047.
This edition is the most complete, the most beautiful, and the best ordered that had ever been published. For the first time, the voluminous correspondence of the author is presented, as well as several plays and other curious pieces left unpublished.
We are grateful to Beaumarchais for the quality of this luxury edition because he did everything to produce a remarkable book: he bought the typefaces from the great English typographer Baskerville, acquired three paper mills in the Vosges, set up a printing house in Kehl (a territory sheltered from French censorship) and spent a fortune to obtain Voltaire’s letters and manuscripts.
The collection contains many illustrations after the drawings of Moreau le Jeune, of which this is the masterpiece.
This draftsman of the King’s Cabinet, seeing the Kehl edition announced, engraved the illustrations on his own behalf and published them in issues; he later gave the proofs to Beaumarchais and they were included in the deluxe copies.
These figures include: a dedication with the portrait of Frédéric-Guillaume by Pourbus, 93 figures by Moreau, engraved by Baquoy, Croutelle, Dambrun, Delaunay, Delaunay jeune, Delignon, Duclos, Fosseyeux, Guttenbeerg, Halbou, Helman, Langlois, Lemire, Leveau, Lingée, De Longueil, Maquelier, Maviez, Patas, Romanet, Simonet, Tardieu and Trière, 14 portraits, 2 portraits and 2 additional frontispices, 1 plan, 1 chart, 14 plates and the unobtainable engraved title ” Estampes destinées à orner L’édition in Octavo Dédiées à Son Altesse royale Le Prince de Prusse par J. M. Moreau, Paris, A.P.D.A. ”
This set of illustrations is one of Moreau’s masterpieces and is sustained without fail from one end to the other for nearly one hundred compositions.
A superb copy preserved in its uniform contemporary green morocco bindings.
