Erasme & M. Gueudeville / Holbein - L’éloge de la folie - 1715

Rarest illustrated edition with a double frontispiece engraved by F. Bleysseyck + 70 engravings in the text + 6 folding engravings outside the text, preceded by a three-page privilege, a dedication to Monsieur Jean de Bye illustrated with a pretty engraved bandeau, a translator's preface, Erasmus's preface to Thomas More, a note to the bookseller, a table of contents -

This major work of European humanist literature, in which Folly itself speaks to pronounce a paradoxical praise of its own person and to denounce, with humor and irony, the vices of the society of its time -

Presented in the form of a declamation, this satire features a narratrix who asserts her universal influence on human behavior and claims that existence would be quite dull without her presence -

Through this deliberately provocative discourse, the author examines the contradictions of human nature and ridicules vanity, ambition, self-love, greed, superstitions and intellectual pretensions -

Philosophers, poets, grammarians, lawyers, doctors, courtiers and the powerful are successively targeted, while religious institutions and clerical behavior are subjected to particularly biting criticism -

Erasme & M. Gueudeville / Holbein - The Praise of Folly, composed in the form of a declamation - 1715 - Pierre Vander Aa - 312 p.

Good condition of the binding, work in its contemporary half-leather binding, boards of brown paper with fairly significant superficial losses, wear from use, some minor defects on the cover, lower spine partially missing, corners worn and bare, smooth spine with raised bands in wear with a worn leather title piece on the edge, gilt lettering -

Good interior condition, browning, scattered foxing, a small repair on a folding engraving, pages 125 to 140 missing, modern embossed ex-libris on the title page, work enriched with a double frontispiece engraved by F. Bleysseyck + 70 engravings in the text + 6 folding engravings outside the text, preceded by a three-page privilege, a dedication to Monsieur Jean de Bye illustrated with a pretty engraved bandeau, a translator's preface, Erasmus's preface to Thomas More, a note to the bookseller, a table of contents, good copy -

Delivery service guaranteed within a few days –