Jean de La Bruyère - Les Caractères de Théophraste traduits du grec, avec Les Caractères ou les mœurs de ce siècle - 1696

LA BRUYÈRE (Jean de). The Characters of Theophrastus translated from Greek, with The Characters or the Manners of This Century. Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1696. 12mo, [9] leaves, 460 p., xxix, [3] p. (privilege, table), brown calf, spine with raised bands ornamented (binding of the period). Counterfeit of the ninth edition at the address of Michallet, title printed in red and black.

Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) was tutor to the Duke of Bourbon, then attached to the house of Condé. Elected to the Académie française in 1693, he published only one book, which he enriched by editions from 1688 to 1694. The ninth, revised but not enlarged, appeared at the time of his death at Versailles, in the night of May 10–11, 1696. It is authoritative for the final text.

The volume brings together two parts. The first is the translation of Theophrastus’s Characters, preceded by the Discours sur Théophraste. The second gathers the sixteen chapters of the famous Characters or the Manners of This Century, from “On Ouvrages de l’esprit” to “Of Men of Action.” It contains the remarks and portraits (Giton, Phaedon, Menalcas, Onuphre, Cydias) where the court, the city, the great, and the partisans of Louis XIV’s reign are observed with a precision that led to the search for the “keys.”

The binding is worn with small losses of leather and restorations, foxing on the pages and other minor defects.

Provenance: calligraphic ex-libris label in ink “Ex libris Ioannes Azemar sacerdotis,” tipped in on the flyleaf for priest Jean Azémar.