Montaigne - Essais - 1769

Montaigne, Michel de
Essays by Montaigne, with the Notes of Mr. Coste. New edition.
London, At Jean Nourse & Vaillant, 1769
4 volumes in-16.

In-16 (miniature pocket-format binding, charming and sought after).

Full contemporary calfskin in the style of Racine, spine with smooth raised bands richly decorated with gold-embossed panels and floral lozenges, title and volume pieces in brown morocco. Speckled edges.

Precious London edition of 1769, established with the erudite notes of Pierre Coste (faithful translator and commentator of Locke and Newton, who strove to restore Montaigne’s text while clarifying it for the eighteenth-century public). Printed in London by Jean Nourse and Vaillant, it testifies to the international reach of French philosophical thought in the very age of the Enlightenment.

Very beautiful, homogeneous set in full Racine calf, with wonderfully marbled boards and elegant spines. Minimal and discreet signs of wear, capitals and corners well preserved, hinges solid.

* Interior: Fresh and well preserved, with pleasant title pages framed. A very fine portable copy, ideal for the library of a bibliophile.

The collector’s anecdote: The bedside book clandestine of philosophers.
Did you know that it is thanks to men like Pierre Coste, whose notes enrich this edition, that Montaigne escaped oblivion before becoming the idol of the Enlightenment? In the seventeenth century, Montaigne’s work was judged to be dangerously provocative by the Church to the point of being placed on the Index. Yet in the following century, the greatest minds—from Voltaire to Rousseau—made it their secret breviary. Voltaire would write of him that he is “the wisest of men,” admiring above all his unique ability to lay himself bare in order to portray, through his own image, “the whole nature of humanity.”

Good copy.