Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

Mythology for ladies 

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DEMOUSTIER, Charles-Albert. LETTRES À EMILIE, SUR LA MYTHOLOGIE. Première [-sixième] partie. A Paris: chez Ant. Aug. Renouard, An XI - 1803. £850

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Six volumes, 12mo, pp. [4], 144, with engraved frontispiece by Gaucher after Ducreux; 132; 112; 116; 127, [1]; 156; each volume with six plates by Audouin after Monnet; clean and crisp throughout; in contemporary pink wrappers, printed paper labels on spines; very light wear, but still a lovely fresh copy, with the bookplate of Oscar Ladner (1873-1963) on pastedowns of each volume.

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A delightful copy, uncut in its original wrappers, of this later printing of Demoustier’s introduction to Greek and Roman mythology, first published from 1786 and much reprinted, most notably in 1809, also by Renouard.

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Demoustier (1760-1801) started his career as a lawyer, but literary ambitions let him both to claim descent (fancifully)from Racine and La Fontaine and to pursue a literary career, writing poems, opera libretti, comedies, and even an introduction to moral philosophy. The present work, however, was what made his reputation. The first part appeared in 1786, while the sixth part did not appear until 1798; throughout, the letters mix prose and verse in presenting a comprehensive guide to classical mythology. The present edition, published not long after his untimely death, opens with a biographical note by F. Fayolle, who suggests that Demoustier has done for mythology what Fontenelle did for astronomy, putting it ‘à la portée des femmes’.

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The work was habitually illustrated with 36 engravings, but these differed from printing to printing. The plates in the present edition first appeared in 1801, and are the work of Pierre Auduoin (1768-1822) after designs by Charles Monnet (1732-after 1808). The similar edition of 1804 had entirely different illustrations. 

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Cf. Cohen–de Ricci, col. 283; outside Continental Europe, OCLC records only two physical copies of this edition, at Stellenbosch and the State Library of New South Wales. 

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