Descrizione

With engr. figured title, engr. vignette on printed title (Le solitaire). 417 pp. 12mo. 18th-cent. full red morocco, flat spine gilt with gilt lettering, gilt lozenge design on sides, gilt outer edges and inner dentelles, pastedowns and flyleaves of blue watered silk, edges gilt (signed Bozerian jeune on back; spine slightly faded). Leiden, Jean Elsevier, 1658. First Elsevier edition of this French verse translation of Marcus Annaeus Lucanus' "Pharsalia" by Guillaume de Brébeuf (1618-1661). It was initially published in Paris in 1655. Fine copy in an elegant binding executed by the famous binder Bozerian jeune (fl. 1805-18). He was one of the most productive binders of the period working for Napoleon, Renouard and all the great bibliophiles of his time. - Willems 827 ("Edition fort bien exécutée"); Copinger 2913; Schweiger 568; Hoefer VII, 288f. ("on trouve chez lui un grand nombre de beaux vers et d'expressions poétiques"); Brunet III, 1202 ("elle est jolie, et les exemplaires bien conservés sont rares et recherchés"). CLASSICS ; LITERATURE: FRENCH ;