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2 volumes. Large 4to, 289 x 205 mms., pp. [iv], lxx, 470; [x], viii, 567 [568 Privilege], including half-title in each volume, title-pages in red and black, engraved portrait frontispiece in volume 1, engraved head- and tail-pieces in each volume, 6 full-page engraved plates in volume 1, X2 in cancelled state in volume 1, contemporary tree calf, rebacked with old spines ornately gilt in compartments, morocco labels laid down, marbled end-papers; front free marbled end-paper in volume detaching at inner margin, some wear to spines and joints. Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711) began his studies at the Sorbonne as a student of theology, but soon switched to law, and he was called to the bar on 4 December 1656. His father died the following year, leaving him an inheritance that enable him to abandon a law career for that of an author. Although he wrote a number of satires modelled on those of Juvenal, it was his L'Art poétique in 1674, along with Le Lutrin that made his reputation. The importance of the former work seems to have faded since the 18th century, perhaps prompted by George Sainsbury's lengthy discussion in his History of Criticism (1902). More recently, however, Boileau's aesthetic theories have attracted some scholarly and critical comment in, for example, in Timothy M. Costelloe: The Sublime: From Antiquity to the Present (2012) and Robert Doran: The Theory of the Sublime from Longinus to Kant (2015). Seller Inventory # 8394
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