‎LA BRUYERE (Jean de) - Les caractères de Theophraste traduits du Grec avec les caractères ou les mœurs de ce siècle - 1694

Eighth edition and the most comprehensive, partly original as it was augmented and corrected during the author's lifetime. The speech at the Académie française is published for the first time with the characters (published separately in 1693), and it is accompanied by an apologetic preface. Contains 1120 characters, including 46 new ones, with 3 old ones augmented (Tchemerzine VI, pp. 322-323).

The first edition of 'Les Caractères' was published in March 1688. Although this initial edition mainly contained remarks and almost no portraits, the success was immediately very strong, and two other editions appeared in the same year, 1688, without La Bruyère having time to significantly expand them. Conversely, the 4th edition (1689) included more than 350 new characters; the fifth (1690), over 150; the sixth (1691) and the seventh (1692), nearly 80 each; the eighth (1693), more than 40, to which must be added the speech at the Academy. Only the 9th edition (1696), published a few days after La Bruyère's death but revised and corrected by him, contained nothing new.

The first nine editions are considered original.

La Bruyere
The characters of Theophrastus translated from Greek with The Characters or the customs of this century
Paris, at Estienne Michalet's, 1714
in-12 (16 x 9.5 cm) of 15f. 716-xliv pp. 4f. Complete.

Full brown calf from the period. Ornamented spine with raised bands, a title piece, and fleuronned panels with gilded tools. Rollers on the edges of the covers. Red edges.

Condition: solid binding, defects: missing fragment at the tail cap, three punched corners, faded gilding on the spine. Brown stain on the margin of the pages (see photos) and some handwritten annotations. Ex-libris in ink on the title. Fair condition.