Œuvres de Plutarque.
Le s Vies des Hommes Illustres de Plutarque (vols. 1-12) (1783-7);
Œuvres Morales de Plutarque (vols. 13-17) (1784-5);
Œuvres Mêlées de Plutarque (vols. 18-22) (1786-7).
Paris: Jean Baptiste Cussac, 1783-87
22 octavo volumes (the pages 19.7 x 12.5 cm), complete (before three supplementary volumes issued later). Illustrated with engraved portrait of Amyot after Marchand and 21 other engraved plates after Le Barbier l'aîné, Moreau le jeune, Marchand, de Mirys, Marillier, Maréchal, Monnet, Borel and de Fraine (complete list available), printed on thicker laid paper without text on the reverse and tissue guarded. Full mottled tan calf, smooth spines with six compartments, four of which gilt tooled and two with calf labels with gilt lettering, red for the title, black for the volume, all edges sprinkled red, marbled endpapers. Printed by Philippe-Denis Pierres, Premier Imprimeur Ordinaire du Roi, on fine Auvergne laid paper. Occasional foxing, soiling and paper defects throughout, a few plates with mild water staining, some infrequent age toning, the bindings and spines chipped, rubbed and worn at extremities, some spine joints starting or splitting but holding, some flaking of spines along joints or at extremities, the bindings ranging from good to merely fair, the set otherwise very good, overall bright internally, the book blocks uniformly tight and strong. Brunet IV 738-9 (1863).
Cussac's beautifully printed set, preferred by Brunet (lot 642 in his 1868 sale) to the rival offering of Jean-François Bastien, was edited by l'Abbé Brotier, Académicien, with his notes and observations, and issued with the approbation and prilivège of the King and l'Académie Royale des Inscriptions & Belles-Lettres. It is based on the celebrated edition published by Michel Vascosan in 1567 and 1574, which Amyot reviewed and corrected. Amyot's timeless translations spanned the reigns of Francis I, Henry II and Charles IX, all of whom granted the author royal favor. The simplicity, purity and clarity of his writing enriched the literature and language of France. Thus Montaigne: "Nous autres, ignorants, étions perdus si ce livre ne nous eût relevés du bourbier... C'est notre bréviaire." The Essais of Montaigne, the works of Boece, Erasmus and Rabelais, Shakespeare's Roman plays through Sir Thomas North's English translation directly from Amyot, and Milton, Dryden, Rousseau, the American fathers of the Constitution, a veritable pantheon still expanding, all are indebted to the enduring Plutarch of Jacques Amyot.
Provenance: gift inscription "For Stuart and Minnie / with love from
/ HARRY/CARESSE [Crosby; in acrostic] / A Paris le 17 Octobre 1925"
(this gift to Harry Crosby's intimate friend Stuart Kaiser, who “always
had Harry’s number,” and Stuart’s wife Minnie being one
of the Crosbys’ earliest usages of the newly conceived acrostic --
see Geoffrey Wolff, Black Sun: the brief transit and violent eclipse of
Harry Crosby, New York: Random House, 1976, at pp. 125-6, 154).
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Price: (as is, allowing for professional binding restoration;
inquire for estimate) $1,250
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