JEWS IN FRANCE IN THE 18th CENTURY - Lot 25

JEWS IN FRANCE IN THE 18th CENTURY ARGENS (J.-B. de Boyer, marquis d')]. Mémoires du comte de Vaxère ou le Faux Rabin, by the author of Lettres juives. Amsterdam, 1737. 2 parts bound in one volume in-12, marbled boards, burgundy morocco title-piece (modern Laurenchet binding), xii, 282, (2) p., engraved frontispiece portrait and 2 plates out of text. First edition illustrated with 3 engraved plates hors-texte, portrait of "Isaac Meio Juif de Metz", "Quand l'Amour est Rabbin vive la Synagogue" (a rabbi in gallant conversation), a cherub and an imp. The Count of Vaxère converts to Judaism to win the hand of the beautiful Rebecca. The work gives the Marquis d'Argens the opportunity to reaffirm the religious tolerance he had already shown in Lettres Juives, but also his skepticism (E. Johnston, Caylus, p. 208). A good, fresh, well-bound copy.