Michel de Montaigne - Les Essais – Édition complète en 3 volumes – Reliures plein cuir dorées - 1781

Michel de Montaigne – The Essays of Michel, Lord of Montaigne – Amsterdam, at the Company’s Expense, 1781.

Beautiful old eighteenth-century edition, complete in its three volumes, of the major work by Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), an essential figure in French literature and humanist philosophy.

New edition, exactly purged of the defects of the previous ones according to the true original, enriched and expanded in the margins with the names of cited authors, with translations of their passages and various observations for the reader.

The work comprises the three books of the Essays, accompanied by their tables of contents and a portrait engraved of Montaigne in the frontispiece of the first volume.

Bindings :

Three volumes in full contemporary morocco, with spines richly decorated with gilded floral motifs, title pieces and volume numbers on a dark ground. Marbled edges.

A homogeneous set, presenting a beautiful antique patina and preserving all its bibliophilic character.

Bibliographical collation of the edition :

* Volume I: 80 preliminary pages, 2 unnumbered leaves, and 543 pages.
* Volume II: 820 pages.
* Volume III: 663 pages.

That is about 2,110 numbered pages, excluding unnumbered leaves.

Condition:

Overall solid, bindings holding up well.

Leather showing wear, cracks, scuffs and small losses, notably at the corners and the ends of the spines, consistent with its age.

Interior generally very well preserved, with pleasantly readable paper and legible text. Some scattered foxing, light browning, and old damp-stains on some leaves.

Beautiful old three-volume set, particularly interesting for lovers of classical literature, philosophy, Montaigne, and eighteenth-century bindings.