Jacques Delille - Œuvres Complètes en 18 volumes (Texte bilingue & Gravures) - 1812-1827

Splendid complete collection in 18 volumes of the Works (Œuvres) by Jacques Delille, famous French poet and translator, published by the great Parisian publisher L.G. Michaud between 1812 and 1827. This is a beautiful and fascinating period collection: the original owner gathered the various volumes during their successive editions at Michaud (with dates ranging from 1812 for La Conversation to 1827 for L'Homme des Champs) and had them rebound in a strictly uniform manner by the same bookbinder, offering a magnificent visual impact on the shelves. The major merit of this edition lies in its first-rate critical and textual apparatus: bilingual editions with facing original text (Latin for Virgil's Aeneid, English for Pope's Essay on the Man). Scientific notes by the celebrated naturalist Georges Cuvier for the volumes of Les Trois Règnes de la Nature. Rich period illustrations: presence of splendid illustrations out of text at the frontispiece of each volume, created by renowned artists of the time (including Baquoy after a design by Moreau le Jeune). Format: In-24 (elegant pocket-sized format of the period) Pagination: About 200-300 pages per volume, for a total overall of about 4,500 pages for the entire lot. Binding: Antique half-leather binding with smooth spine, decorated with gold borders and ornaments, double raised bands for the title and volume number, boards in marbled paper. State of preservation: Excellent overall antique condition. The structure of all volumes is perfectly solid and stable. The bindings show some light scratches and wear typical of two-hundred-year-old volumes. Interiors very fresh and clean, with rare and minimal scattered foxing non-systematic