Belisaire. by MARMONTEL (M. [Jean-François]) - 1767

Par M. Marmontel, De l’Académie Françoise. A Paris, Chez Merlin, Libraire, rue de la Harpe, A l’Image S. Joseph, 1767. Avec Approbation, & Privilége du Roi.
12mo; half-title present; blank leaf follows last page of Préface; [ ] ii, a vi, A-I, K-O xii, P iv; pp.[4 (half-title and title)]+x (Preface)+[ii]+340+[iii (Approbation / Privilége)]; text-paper binder’s blank before half-title, text-paper end-papers; original full sprinkled calf, spine with five raised bands, ruled and tooled (and in one case lettered) gilt in compartments. Leather cracked and a little chipped over back joint; front joint slightly cracking; corners of boards a trifle worn; small burn hole in blank upper margin of half-title; small hole due to an original paper flaw in blank lower margin of leaf D i; otherwise a nice copy. First edition, first issue (the Approbation later being suppressed) and the earliest state of text (without the ‘Addition’ leaf that was added later to some copies): copy on ordinary paper, without plates.

TOGETHER WITH: MARMONTEL (M. [Jean-François]). Belisaire. Par M. Marmontel, De l’Académie Françoise. A Paris, Chez Merlin, Libraire, rue de la Harpe, A l’Image S. Joseph, 1767. Avec Approbation, & Privilége du Roi.
Lge.cr.8vo; half-title present; copper engraved frontispiece and three plates by C. le Vasseur after H. Gravelot; [-], A-I, K-T, V-Xviii, Ziv; pp.[4 (half-title and title)]+x (Preface)+[ii]+340+[iii (Approbation / Privilege)]+[i (blank)]; two binder’s blanks at front, one at back; lacking the blank leaf ([-]viii) which should follow the Préface; contemporary full calf gilt, brown burnished edges. Rebacked, with black label; corners of boards worn; some foxing and marking passim, more or less confined to margins; small neat early name stamp on upper margin of title-page and one other leaf. First edition, first issue (the Approbation later being suppressed) and the earliest state of text (without the ‘Addition’ leaf that was added later to some copies): copy on large and thick paper.

TOGETHER WITH: MARMONTEL (M. [Jean-François]). Belisaire. Par M. Marmontel; [sic] De l’Académie Françoise. A Paris, Chez Merlin, Libraire, rue de la Harpe, A l’Image S. Joseph, 1767. Avec Approbation, & Privilége du Roi.
12mo; copper engraved frontispiece and three plates by C. le Vasseur after H. Gravelot; half-title lacking, possibly not called for; first gathering mis-imposed, so that ‘a iij’ precedes ‘a ij’; leaf headed ‘Addition A la Note de la Page 237.’ precedes ‘Approbation’, etc., blank leaf, apparently integral, follows it; [a^vi], A-I, K-O ^xii, P ^vi; pp.[2 (title)]+x (Préface)+340++[ii]+[iii (Approbation / Privilege)]+[iii (blank)]; text-paper binder’s blank before frontispiece, text-paper end-papers lining pink, grey and white marbled paper end-papers; original full watered calf ruled gilt on sides, rebacked with late Victorian alligator-grain cloth, unlettered, but with small paper label bearing old shelf-mark. Leather a little worn on sides and almost invisibly repaired on edges; endpapers renewed, preserving the original free end-papers; small mark on two pages due to small squashed insects; otherwise a nice copy. First edition, first issue (the Approbation later being suppressed): copy on ordinary paper, with plates, and the extra leaf of ‘Additions’. GOOD MATERIALS FOR A DOCTORAL DISSERTATION! ALL THREE PRINTINGS OF THE FIRST EDITION. The ‘Catalogue hebdomadaire’ lists three issues for the 7th February 1767: one 12mo, without plates, at 2 livres, (which we refer to below as ‘A’); one 12mo, with plates, at 3 livres (which we refer to as ‘C’); and one 8vo, with plates, at 5 livres (which we refer to as ‘B’). All are offered here. All three issues are set to the same measure, and the pagination is the same, but ‘A’ is signed and gathered in sixes up to gathering ‘O’, the final gathering, ‘P’, being of four leaves, the first two of which bear respectively the signature marks P and Pii. It appears to have been printed first, the formes being then unlocked and re-imposed for printing as 8vo, the page signatures being appropriately altered at the same time, all but the last: the second leaf of the final signature, ‘Z’, retaining the original 12mo signature ‘Pii’. This provides a logical sequence, if not actual proof, that ‘A’ was printed in advance of ‘B’, and also shows that the type used was the same. It may be hypothesised that the plates were not ready by the time that ‘A’ was printed (and perhaps, bound). The formes were then once more unlocked and the type apparently stored for a time (v. below) before being re-imposed for printing as 12mo, a number of alterations being made to the text at the same time. In the course of this re-imposition for ‘C’, the layout of the first gathering was mismanaged, and ‘a iij’ in the present copy (pp.v-vi) has been folded to precede ‘a ij’ (pp.iij-iv). Issues ‘A’ and ‘B’ share certain peculiarities, not shared by ‘C’, which suggest a closer relationship between them than with that: both for example have the full stop after ‘PRÉFACE’ on p.[i] raised level with the mid-stroke of the ‘E’, where in ‘C’ it is correctly aligned. Likewise the type ornaments in ‘A’ and ‘B’ are the same, but those in ‘C’ are sometimes different (the head-ornament on p.[i] for instance, or the tail ornament on p.20 or p.32) suggesting that though the type was kept standing, some at least of the type ornaments may have been plundered for use elsewhere before ‘C’ came to be printed. Revisions and corrections, sometimes erroneous, were carried out between each of the three printings: the drop-head ‘BELISAIRE’ on p.1 of ‘A’, for instance, was corrected to ‘BÉLISAIRE’ in ‘B’, but restored to ‘BELISAIRE’ in ‘C’, presumably because that capital ‘E’ had not been accented either in the title-page or running heads, though other capitalised acute ‘E’s had been, as, for example, throughout, in ‘PRÉFACE’. The major differences in text, however, as far as a brief examination can determine, are not between ‘A’ and ‘B’, but between them and ‘C’: opening the volumes pretty well at random we find on p.viij, for example, ‘A’ and ‘B’ read ‘L’historien Procope’ whilst ‘C’ reads ‘L’Historien Procope’; on p.18 the antepenultimate line in ‘C’ reads ‘savez’ where the other two read ‘scavez’; on p.205 ‘change;’ in the last line in ‘A’ and ‘B’ becomes ‘change,’ in ‘C’. More obviously, as well, ‘C’ has a leaf of ‘Additions’ at the end of the text, not present in ‘A’ or ‘B’. There is at least one difference in lineation also: though all three issues are set generally 24 lines to the page p.326 has an extra line in ‘A’ and ‘B’, but the correct number of lines in ‘C’. Other variants (pp.19 and 92, which are one line short, and pp.94, and 124, which have an extra line) are the same in all three printings. We have hypopthesised that the final blank present in this copy of ‘C’ is integral because the position of the chain-lines across the page matches those of the last gathering, but not the backing leaf of the end-papers. The text of Bélisaire ends on p.272 in all three volumes, the remaining pages being occupied by a reprint of Marmontel’s “Fragmens De Philosopie morale”, this being supplied with a fly-title included in the pagination. There is no list of plates, but they are marked to face the start of chapters VI, VII, and XVI (pp.57, 69, and 255), and do so where called for in each case. The 8vo issue offered here is not to be confused with the 240pp. 8vo edition, with a corrected text set to a larger measure, which was published later the same year. Marmontel’s views on toleration and freedom of opinion, as expressed in ‘Bélisaire’ have earned it a place in eighteenth century philosophical thought as well as fiction. All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.