Les metamorphoses d’Ovide, en latin et en françois, de la traduction de M. L’Abbé Banier (…) avec des explications historiques.

Pissot, Prault, Le Clerc, Paris, 1767–71

First edition of the famous 4-volume edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses by Pierre-François Basan (1723–1797) and Noël Le Mire (1724–1801), illustrated by Baquoy, Choffard, Duclos, Legrand and many others after Bocuehr, Eisen, Gravelot, Moreau, etc. “It is one of the most brilliantly illustrated of the entire century” (Cohen).

Description: 4 vols., contemporary marbled calf, sides ruled with triple gilt fillet and decorative gilt roll to board edges. Spine richly gilt in compartments between five raised bands, with two brown morocco labels, lettered gilt. Marbled endpapers. Large square octavo: 25 × 19 cm; pag.: vol.1: [5]ll., pp. xc, [2 (approbation)], 264. vol.2: vii, 352. vol.3: viii, 360. vol.4: viii, 367, 8 (explication). With 140 numbered copper-engraved plates (No. 1 frontispiece, 2–140 with printed captions), 1 final plate (vol.4), 4 title page vignettes, 3 engraved dedication vignettes (vol.1), 30 engraved headpieces. All edges gilt.

Provenance: Bookseller’s paper label with black lettering Se trouve à Mannheim chez Charles Fontaine on the front free endpaper of vol. 1. Charles Fontaine (1724–1802) was one of the most important distributors of Enlightenment literature in the German southwest. His libraire françois, founded in Mannheim in 1742, developed into an important hub of the French book trade. In 1777, Charles Fontaine handed over his bookshop to his son Matthias Fontaine (1749–1818), who ran it until 1816.

Ref.: Brunet iv, 285; Cohen 769; Fürstenberg 79

Condition: Covers slightly rubbed, corners somewhat bumped, small wormhole to joints of vols. iii and iv, a few minor marks to covers. Contents with usual light age tanning and occasional light handling marks, some offsetting from engravings. a very attractive, excellent illustrated and nicely bound edition.