Ramsay - Les Voyages de Cyrus - 1768

RAMSAY (Andrew Michael, called the Knight)

The Voyages of Cyrus, moral tale. Followed by a Discourse on the mythology & theology of the ancients.

The Hague, at Nicolas van Daalen, bookseller, 1768.

1 volume small 12mo (14.5 x 9.5 cm), mottled calf (binding of the period), spine with raised bands ornamented, title-piece in morocco, marbled edges, decorative roll on the covers, handwritten signature on the upper addition, [7]-472 pages (complete). Corners rubbed, a few scratches on the boards, nick to the tail edge. Good overall condition.

Illustrated edition with a plate hors-texte.

Scottish by origin, Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686-1743) was a disciple of Fenelon, for whom he served as secretary before becoming secretary to Jeanne Guyon, the Protagonist of Quietism. He published his Voyage de Cyrus in 1727; it is a novel primarily philosophical, punctuated here and there with Masonic reflections, inspired among others by Fenelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus, in which Cyrus, in search of truth, meets the great thinkers of Antiquity such as Zoroaster or Pythagoras. The text is followed by the Discours sur la théologie et la mythologie des payens and a Letter from M. Fréret to the author On the Chronology of his work.

A agreeable copy.