VOLTAIRE. - Lot 30

VOLTAIRE. La Henriade, poeme, suivi de quelques autres poèmes. [Khel]: De l'imprimerie de la Société typographique, 1789. - Large in-4, green morocco, framed by a cold palmettes roulette set with two gilt fillets, with gilt cathedral plate and gilt rosette in the center on the boards, richly decorated ribbed spine, inner gilt roulette, gilt edges (Thouvenin). Fine edition printed on wove paper, illustrated with a portrait of Henri IV engraved by Tardieu after Pourbus and 10 plates engraved after drawings by Moreau le jeune. According to Cohen, this edition "was to be part of a 40-volume in-4 'Voltaire' that Beaumarchais intended to publish; large-format figures had begun to be engraved after drawings by Moreau. The "Henriade" alone was made in this way, plus five pieces for the "Théâtre" and the "Romans", the title finial of the "Henriade" and the portrait of Frédéric-Guillaume de Prusse" (Cohen, 1028). A superb copy in Thouvenin morocco, with fine cathedral decoration. It was offered as an honorary prize to Jean-François Barrière, a rhetoric student at the Collège des Sciences et des Arts de Saint-Barbe on 4 fructidor an XI (August 22, 1803). The prize label has been bound opposite the title, signed by Pierre-Antoine-Victor Marey de Lanneau (1758-1830), the founder of the Collège de Sainte-Barbe. Spine faded, some wear rubbing, corners slightly dulled. Some foxing.