Longin - Oeuvres diverses: Le Traité du Sublime ou du Merveilleux dans le discours - 1675-1675

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux — Various Works with the Treatise on the Sublime — Paris, Louis Billaine, 1675

17th-Century French edition, published during the author’s lifetime, under Louis XIV. Work illustrated with four full-page engravings.

Bibliographic description

Author: Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711).

Title: Various Works, with the Treatise on the Sublime or the Marvelous in Discourse, translated from Longinus’ Greek.

Publication: Paris, at Louis Billaine’s, at the second pillar of the Grand’Salle in the Palais, at Grand César.

Year: 1675 (M. DC. LXXV.), with royal privilege.

Language: French.

Illustrations: four full-page engravings, accompanied by typographic ornaments.

Contents of the work

This volume brings together several of Boileau’s major works, including:

Nine Satires, up to page 93.
Discourse on Satire, pages 95 to 104.
Four Epistles, pages 105 to 132.
The Art of Poetry in verse, pages 137 to 186, with an engraving.
The Lutrin, a heroic-comic poem, pages 195 to 233.
Unnumbered table of contents.
Treatise on the Sublime or the Marvelous in Discourse, translated from Longinus, with preface, notes, and table of contents.
Royal privilege at the end of the volume.
The work presents a distinct pagination for the Treatise on the Sublime, whose notes end on page 139.

Nicolas Boileau and French Classicism

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) is one of the leading representatives of French literary classicism.
A contemporary of Molière, Racine, and La Fontaine, he established himself as a satirical poet, critic, and theorist of literature under Louis XIV.
His Art Poétique, first published in 1674, articulates the principles of clarity, measure, and rigor that typify classical aesthetics.
His Satires denounce the vices of society and the literary world, while The Lutrin showcases his talent for heroic-comic poetry.
His translation of the Treatise on the Sublime, traditionally attributed to Longinus, helped disseminate ancient reflections on eloquence and the power of discourse in France.

Context of publication

This Paris edition of 1675 appeared one year after the first collective edition of the Various Works of 1674, at a pivotal moment in Boileau’s career.
It bears the address of Louis Billaine, a Paris bookseller based in the Grand’Salle of the Palais, one of the important centers of book trade in the 17th century.
The copy testifies to the diffusion of Grand Siècle literary works and to the publishing practices of the era, notably through royal privilege, engravings, and typographic ornaments.

Bibliographical peculiarities

The copy presents several interesting features for the study of early editions of Boileau:
• Title page dated 1675.
• Presence of four full-page engravings.
• The Lutrin begins on page 195.
• Absence of the Epistle to M. de Guilleragues at the examined position.
• Ancient marginalia and provenance inscriptions, some of which are crossed out.

These particularities may help distinguish the different states of the editions published in that period.

Condition

Ancient copy showing signs of use appropriate to its age: browning, stains, humidity marks, wear to the binding, and fragilities at the hinges and sewing.
Presence of ancient marginalia on the flyleaves and the title page.
The preserved texts and engravings are legible.
Four full-page engravings are present. No frontispiece precedes the title page. Some bibliographical descriptions of comparable editions mention five plates, including a frontispiece: a frontispiece may be missing in this copy.
Complete collation not certified.

Collecting interest

A 17th-century work published during Boileau’s lifetime, gathering several fundamental texts of classical French literature.
An interesting copy for collectors of Grand Siècle literature, of early illustrated editions, and of the history of the book under Louis XIV.
Original edition not claimed.