Fenelon Fran ois Salignac Mothe (4 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. hardback, narrow 12mo, xxviii,339pp, 2 frontispiece plates, page edges gilt, clean and tight, no inscriptions, red full morocco leather binding with gilt titles, yapp edges, Very Good condition in slipcase.

Two volumes, twelvemo. [2], viii, [2, errata], 254; [4], 212 pp. Original boards, uncut, printed paper label in Volume II. Spines worn and backstrips largely missing, but generally a sound copy. First edition of this English translation of Fenelon's study of the Greek philosophers. An earlier English translation appeared in 1726. Cormack's translation is unaccountably rare in the first edition: OCLC lists but five copies (Northern Illinois University, Meadville-Lombard Theological Seminary in Illinois, University of Western Ontario, Massachusetts Historical Society, Allegheny College). This translation turned out to be enduring. Numerous editions were published in both Britain and America throughout the nineteenth century.

This is one of the major works of the celebrated Archbishop of Cambrai (1651-1715), who also wrote Trait de l'education des filles (1687) and Tlmaque (1699). Though written in the 1680s, it was not published until after his death. It was seen through the press by the Chevalier Ramsay, a close friend, to whom Fnelon had left all his papers. Written by a young clergyman attempting to improve the quality of preaching in his own day, the Dialogues are of great interest in the history of seventeenth-century critical thought. "Éit is no exaggeration to say that his Dialogues on Eloquence are designed to be a complete theory of communication, with primary emphasis upon the preacher and the sermon, and with sustained auxiliary emphasis upon the work of the secular orator, the teacher, the poet, and the artist. His fundamental purpose is to base his theory of preaching upon the theory of art, and to keep everywhere in mind the relations between art and life. Thus his interests are more philosophical than specialized, more humane than technological, more liberal than doctrinaire" (Wilbur Samuel Howell, in his preface to the English translation, Princeton University Press, 1951). This work was translated into English in 1722, and went through several editions. In some copies of this original printing, pp. 159-168 have been repeated, with the result that the text ends on p. 409; in this copy, possibly a later issue, the pagination is essentially correct, and ends on p. 419 (the title-page and collation are identical). Twelvemo. [8], 419, [3] pp. Contemporary calf. Gilt spine, brown morocco label. Minor wear to binding. A near fine copy. First edition. Tchemerzine V, 227. See Howell, Eighteenth-Century British Logic and Rhetoric, p. 132ff. OCLC lists only thirteen copies, nine in North America.

Instructions for the Education of a Daughter was "Éthe first systematic attempt ever made to deal with that subject as a whole. Hence it was probably the most influential of all Fnelon's books, and guided French ideas on the question all through the 18th century. It holds a most judicious balance between the two opposing parties of the time. On the one side were the prcieuses, enthusiasts for the 'higher' education of their sex; on the other were the heavy Philistines, so often portrayed by Molire, who thought that the less girls knew the better they were likely to be. Fnelon sums up in favour of the cultivated house-wife; his first object was to persuade the mothers to take charge of their girls themselves, and fit them to become wives and mothers in their turn" (Encyclopedia Britannica, 13th edition). "Il faut considrer outre le bien que font les femmes quand elles sont bien leves, le mal qu'elles causent dans e monde quand elles manquent d'une education qui leur inspire la vertu. Il est constant que la mauvaise ducation des femmes fait plus de mal que celle des hommes, puisque les dsordres des hommes viennent souvent & de la mauvaise ducation qu'ils ont recee de leurs mres, & des passions que d'autres femmes leur ont inspires dans un ge plus avanc. Quelles intrigues se presentent nous dans les Histoires, quel renversement des lois & des moeurs, quelles guerres sanglantes, quelles nouveautez contre la religion, quelles rvolutions d'Etat causes par le dreglement des femmes! Voil ce qui prouve l'importance de bien lever les filles" (pp. 7-8). Twelvemo. [4], [3, catalogue], [1, blank], 275 [i.e., 269, pagination for pp. 193-8 omitted as usual, but complete], ], [6, privilege] pp. Title-page in black and red. Contemporary calf, gilt-decorated spine. Spine ends, corners lightly worn. Some light browning, but generally a very good copy. First edition, mixed issue, of Fnelon's (1651-1715) most important book. This copy has no errata, as is the case with first issue copies, according to Tchermerzine. It follows Tchermerzine's description of the second issue, with p. 167, line 20 having the reading "sans vivre de son esprit" . However, it has the errors on p. 275 ("manifiques" and "simpliet"), as does the first issue. Both O4 (pp. 167-8) and pp. 275-6 (Z3) are on stubs. Tchermerzine III, p. 164.