LE CHEF D'ŒUVRED UN INCONNU, poem happily discovered & b - Lot 236

LE CHEF D'ŒUVRED UN INCONNU, poem happily discovered & brought up to date with learned and researched Remarks... one finds moreover a dissertation on Homer & on Chapelain; two letters on Antiques; the Preface of Cervantes on the History of Don Quixotte de la Manche; the Deification of Aristarchus Masso... ... La Haye, Pierre Husson, 1732. Two volumes in two volumes in-12, half red morocco chagrin, spine ribbed and decorated (19th century binding). A fine copy. Sixth edition revised, corrected, enlarged & diminished. Illustrated with a portrait of the author engraved by Calotin and painted by Apelles and two filled-in figures, including a music plate. A potpourri of fashionable literary dissertations that constitutes a ''Histoire critique de la République des Lettres''. The author inserts in full Cervantes' first preface in Spanish and French to : '' derribar la maquina mal fundada destos cavallerescos libros aborrecidos de tantos y alabados de muchos mas: que si esto alcançassedes no avriades alcançado poco " We can see the extent to which Cervantes' intentions preoccupied the "intellectuals" of the early 18th century (the original edition dates from 1714). This is a collaborative work by Sgravesande, Sallengre, Prosper Marchand and others. Engraved bookplate of Patrice Salin. Palau 285162.