[Nicolas-Edme RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE]. Les Nuits de Paris, ou - Lot 95

[Nicolas-Edme RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE]. Les Nuits de Paris, ou Le Spectateur nocturne. A Londres , et se trouve à Paris, chés les Libraires nommés en tête du catalog, 1788-1790. 15 parts (out of 16) in 8 volumes in-12, fawn half-calf, ornate ribbed spines, red and green morocco labels. 15 parts (out of 16): Parts 1 to 14: [2 ff.], 3359 pp. (misfigured 2359) (continuous pagination), 16 engravings including one fold-out at the head of the first volume (portrait of Restif by Binet engraved by Berthet). 15th part titled: La Semaine nocturne. Sept nuits de Paris A Paris, chez Guillot, 1790 : 264 pp. (misquoted 164), [12 ff.], frontispiece. First edition. "The sixteenth part, which has become extremely rare, was not published until three years after the fifteenth" (Rives Childs, pp. 303-306). A nocturnal bird, Restif, known as "le Hibou", haunted the streets of the capital night after night, observing and noting everything that went on, and occasionally acting as a police informer. This work is a vivid and impressive painting of Paris on the eve and at the start of the Revolution. Corners rubbed, scattered freckles and stains, one leaf angularly missing from vol. 4 without affecting the text, leaf V12 poorly bound in vol. 7). Provenance: E. Michelot with his name gilt on the tail.