LA BRUYÈRE (Jean de). LES CARACTÈRES DE THÉOPHRASTE... Lot 119

LA BRUYÈRE (Jean de). LES CARACTÈRES DE THÉOPHRASTE translated from Greek, with the Characters or Mores of this century. Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1688. In-12 (bookcase: 95 X 158 mm) brown calf, spine ribbed with gilt fleurons, gilt title, ornate spines and headpieces, red speckled edges (contemporary binding); (30) ff., 53-360 pp., (2) ff. privilege and errata, (1) blank f.. Minor restorations to binding (notably at head of jaws); errata leaf reduced by 6 mm in lateral margin. FIRST ORIGINAL EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND FASCINATING TEXTS OF THE 17th CENTURY. Exemplary 3rd state, definitive hardback edition with errata. It contains 24 cartons corresponding to those detailed by Servois for this 3rd state. No copy of the 1st state, i.e. from the presses entirely without the cartons, has survived to the present day, and Tchemerzine lists 6 copies of the 2nd state at the time. The "achevé d'imprimer" is dated October 8, 1687, and the errata leaf has been added by the printer: its lateral margin is reduced by 6 mm and its spandrels are inverted in relation to the leaves that make up the body of the work, including those of the last blank leaf before which it was bound at the time. In our copy, 6 of the 9 misprints described in the errata have been carefully corrected in the text in brown ink (pp. 132-178-183-224-233-307); the misprint on page 230 has not been corrected, nor have those on pages 288 and 345 falsely announced as 268 and 344 in the errata. This RARE first edition contains 418 characters. It is an anonymous collection whose successive reprints (9 editions from 1688 to 1696), subtly modified and enlarged until his death by La Bruyère, produced one of the most famous bestsellers of the Grand Siècle. ¶ Servois, I - Rochebilière, 606, describes a copy "grand de marges" with a height of 158 mm - Tchemerzine III, 791 - Le Petit,428 - Thierry Bodin, En français dans le texte, 124 - De Backer, 919, in signed 19th-century morocco - Rotschild, 159, in signed 19th-century morocco.