LES IMPERATRICES ROMAINES ou Histoire de la Vie & des Intrigues secretes des Femmes des douze Cesars, de celles des Empereurs Romains, & des Princesses de leur Sang

Paris: Hourdel, 1744. Hardcover. Very good. Three volumes, octavo (170 x 90 mm). Decorative head- and tailpieces throughout. (4), 455; vii, 444; (2), 408 pp., collated and complete (pages iii-vi of Preface of Volume II bound in error at end of Volume III). Slight wear to head and tail of spines and corners, 4 very small scrapes to covers on Volume I, tiny crack at top of hinges on Volume III, a few small indentations to lower cover on Volume III, manuscript notes on second blank endpaper in Volume I, small pale water-stain and very small closed tear to second blank endpaper in Volume III, tiny red mark to page edges in Volume III, just showing in margin of 5 pages, occasional brown spot, otherwise pages clean and bright. Tiny red mark to page edges in Volume III, just showing in margin of 5 pages, otherwise pages clean and bright. Bound in contemporary French red morocco, triple gilt ruled border to covers, gilt decorated raised bands to spine, gilt decoration in compartments, all edges gilt over marbling, marbled endpapers. New edition, corrected and enlarged. ¶ Sumptuous 18th-century full red morocco preserving an unlikely set of books on the history of the wives of the Roman Emperors. * First published in one volume in 1718 under the title "Les femmes des douze Cesars," our edition is considerably expanded to encompass three volumes. This history of the lives and amours of the Empresses and consorts to the first 12 Caesars was compiled by the French historian Jacques Roergas de Serviez (1679-1727). See Miriam Elizabeth Burstein, "Unstoried in History: Early Histories of Women (1652-1902) in the Huntington Library Collections" (in: The Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 3/4 [2001], p. 472). * An outstanding set of this scarce work. PROVENANCE: D.F. de GELAS DE VOISINS D'AMBRES (1686-1762), COMTE DE LAUTREC, MARECHAL DE FRANCE, with his armorial bookplate in each volume. Subsequently in the library of M. Renard, and Ginette & Marcel Lavergne.