BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE. - Lot 9

BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE. Studies of Nature [with] A Solitary Man’s Wishes, to Serve as a Sequel to Studies of Nature [and] The Indian Cottage. Paris: The Printer’s Workshop, 1791–1792. 5 volumes in-12. Contemporary fawn-colored speckled sheepskin, smooth spine decorated with circular gilt metal fittings, green title and volume number label, gilt title, gilt roulette on the edges (blunted corners, small areas of leather missing on the spine, some browning). A fine, classic edition of the writings of the famous Enlightenment botanist and writer (1737–1814), printed by Didot the Younger, who had purchased the printing house of the Count of Provence. Complete with the 5 copperplate engravings in black, as indicated in the note to the bookbinder at the end of Volume II, all printed on azure paper. Includes a frontispiece and an engraved depiction of the globe, the Atlantic Hemisphere in the first volume, and three botanical plates in the second. A fine copy in its period binding.