Jean-Joseph Bouvier Lionnois - Traité de la mytologie. Orné de cent-quatre-vingt gravures en taille douce, à l'usage des jeunes - 1788

Jean-Joseph Bouvier Lionnois: Treatise on Mythology. Decorated with one hundred and eighty copperplate engravings, intended for young men of both sexes. Third edition. In Paris, at Villier, Bookseller, rue des Mathurins, no. 396. (stuck over the original publisher from Nancy). With the approval and privilege of the King, 1788. 8vo: (4)394 pages, complete with the 15 foldable numbered plates. (all photographed). Original worn leather binding on the spine, with boards and edges. Binding and paper in good condition.

Jean-Joseph Bouvier (1730-1806) was a French historian, educator, religious figure, writer, and philologist, known as 'Abbé Lionnois', author of various educational works. He was a patient researcher of annals and published useful compilations under the title Historia de Nancy.
Bouvier was a priest born in Nancy, with a father originally from Lyon, a former director of the university college and dean of the faculty of arts in Nancy, who dedicated his life to public education. In 1761, he established a boarding school that attracted many students, for whom he wrote various elementary lectures, which he published separately and later combined in 1764 into a work titled 'Course of Studies.' In 1766, he published historical, genealogical, and geographical tables with the history of the people of God, Egypt, Assyria, etc., as well as France, Lorraine (France), and Austria.
During the suppression of the Society of Jesus that took place in Lorraine after the death of King Stanisław I Leszczyński, Duke of Lorraine, Bouvier, who had received the sacrament of holy ordinations, was appointed director of the new university established in Nancy. He maintained a fondness for good learning and introduced new methods for teaching history and geography, and in 1777, he retired with a pension of 1,600 pounds. Bouvier is notable for his efforts in publishing works on mythology, geography, poetry, the Latin language, an excellent translation of a breviary from the old diocese of Toul, a secular history, an explanatory work on fables for understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs and elementary writings, and several parts of theology that reveal his inclination towards the logic of Port Royal, as well as a catechism adopted by the diocese of Nancy. Although his history does not follow a single plan, it is full of remarkable facts and precise data, and his works promote in-depth research and are filled with circumstances that reveal his love for his country.