Paris, Imprimerie de Firmin Didot frères, 1833.
4 parts bound in 4 8vo volumes of I/ xv pp., 376 pp., 4 engravings out of pagination protected by silky papers; II/ (2) ll., 411 pp., 2 engravings out of pagination protected by silky papers; III/ (2) ll., 356 pp., 2 engravings out of pagination protected by silky papers; IV/ (2) ll., 444 pp., 4 engravings out of pagination protected by silky papers.
Green quarter morocco, richly decorated spines ribbed. Binding from the second half of the nineteenth century.
231 x 141 mm.
First edition of the translation made by the Count de La Bédoyère.
Cohen, Supp., 1100 ; Vicaire, III, col. 703-704.
The text is preceded by a foreword by the translator and Fielding’s dedicatory epistle.
The work is illustrated with a series of 12 nice out of pagination figures before the letter by Moreau le jeune copper-engraved by de Villiers, Mariage and Simonet.
These compositions belong to the artist’s late style. They were engraved shortly after his death in 1814. The proofs of the print before the letter with the name of the artists in the point indicate the date 1816.
Moreau le Jeune also illustrated the translation by the Comte de La Bédoyère of Les Souffrances du jeune Werther by Gœthe, published by Pierre Didot l’aîné in 1809. It seems that the illustrator and the translator had a special relationship, as shown by the numerous original drawings by the artist in the copies of the works translated or written by the Count de La Bédoyère and described by Roger Portalis.
One of the few copies printed on large vellum paper, particularly wide-margined (height: 231 mm), with the figures by Moreau before the letter printed on China paper.
Provenance : Charles Hayoit with ex libris.
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