[CURIOSA]. - Lot 65

[CURIOSA]. Les Amours des dieux payens. Lampsaque: chez tous les Marchands de Nouveautés, 1802. - 2 volumes in one in-18, 131x82: (2 ff.), 106 pp. 9 plates; (2 ff.), 107 pp. 11 plates. Dark blue half-maroquin, ornate ribbed spine, red edges (L. Fixon). Dutel, A-62. - Pia, 46. Charming edition of Simon-Célestin Croze-Magnan's text, illustrated with 20 free plates that are a reproduction of those appearing in the in-16 or in-18 edition published around 1798 entitled L'Aretin d'Auguste Carrache. The latter already reproduced the 20 engravings by Jacques-Joseph Coiny published by Didot in 1798 in in-4 format. Dutel and Pia also mention a frontispiece at the beginning of the preface. It is written: "we will give a notice of the lives of the two famous men whose names are on the frontispiece; l'Arétin and A. Carracci." The term "frontispiece" here refers to the title and not to an engraving, hence the fact that no copy has it. This preface echoes the one published in the edition published around 1798, which has no frontispiece but whose title, L'Aretin d'Auguste Carrache, does mention the two names. A fine copy bound by Léon Fixon, a former Thouvenin worker who practiced until around 1850. Spine very slightly faded.