PASCAL Lot n° 41

Les Provinciales ou les Lettres écrites par Louis de Montalte, à un Provincial de ses amis, & aux RR. PP. Jésuites: Sur le sujet de la Morale, & de la Politique de ces Pères Cologne [Amsterdam], Pierre de La Vallée [Louis and Daniel Elzevier], 1657 VERY PRETTY EXAMPLE, BINDED IN VELIN À L'ÉPOQUE First Elzevier edition, printed the same year as the original in-4 In-12 (134 x 74 mm). Woodcut fleuron on title page, initials and entablature. CONDITION: second state, conforming to the remarks of Brunet, Willems and Tchemerzine COLLATION: (12) ff. 396-108 pp. FOLLOWING: Avis de Messieurs les Curez de Paris, 108 pp. supplement required in this edition CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Stiff ivory vellum with covers, visible stitching, title in ink on spine, speckled edges. Provenance: Samuel Polkouck [?] (handwritten bookplate on upper flyleaf) -- Claude Gabriel Doüet de Vichy, conseiller au Parlement (17??-1787; bookplate) Old annotation in faded ink on a flyleaf having discharged on the title This edition "should [...] be preferred [...], because it was made according to the author's last corrections" (Brunet). "This reprint recommends itself by additions to the text and corrections [...] As such, [it] should deserve preference" (Willems). "In a word, it is the definitive text as revised by Pascal himself and adopted in all subsequent editions" (Tchemerzine). BIBLIOGRAPHY: Brunet, IV, 395-396 -- Willems no. 1218 -- Tchemerzine, V, p. 69