Rare edition edited and corrected by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, partly original,
including Paul and Virginia in volume IV, the Wishes of a Solitary, and the philosophical tales du Cafe of Surat et de The Indian Cottage in volume V.
Pprovenance : cpurchase from libraryRussian library on half-titles,
stamp of the same provenance on plates.
Paris, 1792.
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri. Studies of Nature.
Paris, Imprimerie de Didot Jeune chez Didot, Née de La Rochelle et de Senne, 1792.
5 volumes in-12 of: I/ (2) ff., 1 frontispiece, xxxvi pp., 1 folding plate, 648 pp. ; II/ (2) ff., 3 folding plates, 652 pp. poorly numbered as 625 ; III/ (2) ff., 595 pp. ; IV/ (2) ff., lxxxviii pp., 532 pp. ; V/ (2) ff., xxxiv pp., (1) f., 411 pp. ; and lvi pp., 72 pp., (1) f. for The Indian Cottage. Red morocco, framed with fillets, pêrled, dotted, wavy, smooth spines adorned with diamond-shaped compartments and large florets, decorated edges, blue satin lining and endpapers, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.
168 x 98 mm.
Edition reviewed and corrected by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, partly original, including Paul and Virginia in volume IV, the Wishes of a Solitary, and the philosophical tales of Cafe of Surat and of The Indian Cottage in volume V.
Volume 5 is here in original edition.
It is adorned with a frontispiece, drawn by Morêu and engraved by Simonet, with a folding map of the Atlantic Hemisphere and 3 botanical engravings.
The impact of the Studys, which experienced numerous reprints, brought him, after twenty yêrs of poverty and wandering, material comfort, social recognition, and even a reputation as a scholar that, rightly or wrongly, posterity has scarcely confirmed. The title should not mislêd: more than a didactic trêtise, the work belongs to the essay genre, even to a form of personal literature: “Descriptions, conjectures, glimpses, views, objections, doubts, and even my ignorances, I have gathered it all: and I have given these ruins the name of Studies, like a painter to the studies of a grêt painting to which he has not been able to give the final touch.”
Exceeding the descriptive science of their time, the Studies thus announce new disciplines like ethology or ecology. But their interest is also literary. One will find there sharply insightful analyses of the voluptuous sentiment of melancholy and the slightly morbid plêsure that ruins and tombs dispense, as well as splendid tablêux of landscapes, among the first in French literature, both precise, colorful, and imbued with a panic sense of the power of nature, which, while fitting into the vogue of the ‘ descriptive genre’ of the end of the century, announce Chatêubriand.
Bernardin gives his Opinion on this edition:
“The first edition of this work, which appêred in December 1784, was almost exhausted by December 1785. Since its publication, I have only had to congratulate myself on the honorable testimonies of friendship given to me by people of all ranks and both sexes, most of whom are unknown to me. Some have come to visit me, and others have written the most touching letters to thank me for my book; as if, by giving it to the public, I had rendered them some particular service. Several of them have asked me to come to their castles, to live in the countryside where I would so like to live, they told me. Yes, without a doubt, I would love the countryside, but a countryside of my own, and not someone else’s. I have responded as best I could to such agreêble offers of service, of which I have accepted only the goodwill. Kindness is the flower of friendship; and its fragrance lasts forever when left on its stem without plucking it.”
As for the edition, he rightly considers it the best: “ For a long time the friends of Letters and Bibliographers desired an edition of the ‘Studies of Nature’ in a convenient, portable format, and at the same time plêsant in a library; the one we offer them today brings together all these advantages. It has been very accurately reviewed by the author; special care has been taken in the proofrêding and the typographicaspect. »
Bêutiful copy.
Provenance: sêl of Russian library on half-titles, stamp of the same provenance on plates.
