Lucien - [Œuvres] de la traduction de N. Perrot, Sr d'Ablancourt. - 1674

New edition of Perrot d'Ablancourt's (1606-1664) translation of the work of Lucian of Samosata, one of the favorite readings of cultivated circles.

In three volumes bound in beautiful full brown calf leather, with spine bands decorated with gilt fleurons, panels with small tools, a title piece glued to gilded initials, red edges, decorated endpapers, and interior lace. In good condition. Some scuffs, a fragment of the head cap missing, slightly yellowed paper with a few scattered foxing without severity.

Understand the dialogues including 'Dialogue of the Courtesans,' various satires such as 'Against an Ignorant Who Was Building a Library' (possibly a source for La Bruyère), and 'True History,' a voyage to the Moon that influenced the famous libertine Cyrano de Bergerac.

Provenance: Bibliothèque de Belay with bookplate on the front pastedown bearing the initials C.C.
Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt, born in Châlons-en-Champagne on April 5, 1606, and died in Paris on November 17, 1664, buried in Ablancourt, was a French man of letters, scholar, and translator. According to him, a translation should not aim so much at literalness and accuracy as at conveying the spirit of the original work while adapting it to the taste of the time. It was from a mischievous remark about one of his translations that the expression 'les belles infidèles' was born.

Nicolas Perrot d'Ablancourt / Lucien
Works of the translation of N. Perrot, Sr d'Ablancourt.
Paris, Louis Bilaine, 1674
3 volumes, in-12 (15.5 x 9 cm), 346 pages + 392 pages + 426 pages + tables