MONTAIGNE, Michel de. The Essays of Michel, Lord of Montaign - Lot 219

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MONTAIGNE, Michel de. The Essays of Michel, Lord of Montaign - Lot 219
MONTAIGNE, Michel de. The Essays of Michel, Lord of Montaigne. New edition, based on the copy found after the author’s death, revised and expanded by one-third beyond previous printings. An important edition of Montaigne’s Essays containing the definitive version provided by Marie de Gournay. Paris, Published by Abel l’Angelier, 1598. In-8 (190 x 133 mm), fawn sheepskin, ribbed spine, gilt title. 2 unnumbered folios, 1,165 pages, 4 blank folios, and 2 unnumbered folios (table of contents) bound at the end. A few small scratches on the binding; the engraved title page is truncated and restored; the title is cut short at the binding and reinforced on the verso; leaves Liv and Lv are stitched, small wormholes in the lower margin (on a few leaves in quires F and L), two leaves from the table of contents reattached at the end are faded and frayed, a few foxing spots mainly in quire M. A rare posthumous second edition of the Essays, the first in-8 format, presented by Mademoiselle de Gournay, Montaigne’s “daughter-in-law.” “It is of the utmost rarity and interest because of the new preface in which Mlle de Gournay retracts that of 1595.” [Tchemerzine, VIII, 409]. Following the writer’s death, Marie de Gournay (1565–1645) moved into the Château de Montaigne in 1596 to meticulously revise the text there. Published by Abel l’Angelier, this 1598 edition is far rarer than the large-format in-quarto edition of 1595. While incorporating the final corrections made by the “daughter-in-law,” it is distinguished above all by the complete omission of her original lengthy preface. Marie de Gournay would explain that she had written the preface in the throes of a “violent fever of the soul” born of grief, preferring to replace it here with a brief statement of retraction. It is this version, considered definitive, that would serve as the model for subsequent editions of the Essays On the flyleaf, an 18th-century handwritten annotation in ink tracing the editorial history and critical reception of the *Essays*. It lists the standard editions (1595, 1621, 1635) and compiles valuable bibliographic references to the major critical assessments of the time (Baillet, Malebranche, Scaliger, Balzac) as well as to the first Italian translation from 1590. Two handwritten annotations in ink in the margin of page 1 and a few underlines through page 113. A gift from a grandmother to her granddaughter, inscribed in pencil. A fine copy in a sturdy 20th-century binding.
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