MOLIÈRE (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin). Les Œuvres de Monsieur de Molière. Reveuës, corrigées & augmentées. Enrichies de Figures en Taille-douce.

Paris: Denys Thierry, Claude Barbin, Pierre Trabouillet, 1682.

12mo (162 × 97 mm). Eight volumes. Vol. I: (13) ff., 304 pp., (2) ff.; Vol. II: 416 pp., (2) ff.; Vol. III: 308 pp., (2) ff.; Vol. IV: 296 pp., (2) ff.; Vol. V: 335 pp., (1) f.; Vol. VI: 93 pp., (1) f., 195 pp., (2) ff.; Vol. VII: 261 pp., (1) f.; Vol. VIII: 312 pp.
Full midnight-blue morocco, covers with double gilt fillet borders and corner tools enclosed within triple gilt fillets, elaborately gilt central arabesque, spines richly gilt in compartments with pointillé, fillets and tools, gilt lettering and volume numbers, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, gilt turn-ins; binding signed L. Tripon.

Partly original edition.

A highly important edition, described by Damascène Morgand as the first complete edition, and one which Brunet notes is “very difficult to find in well-preserved condition”.

The first illustrated edition, containing 30 engraved plates by J. Sauvé after Brissart. The illustrations to Les Précieuses, L’Escorte des maris, and L’Escole des femmes are unsigned.

This is the first complete collected edition, prepared by Jean Vivot and Charles Varlet, sieur de La Grange, from Molière’s own manuscripts (Molière having died in 1673). The last two volumes contain six plays published here for the first time, “which had remained unpublished” (Bibl. moliér.): Dom Garcie de Navarre ou Le Prince jaloux, L’Impromptu de Versailles, Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre, Mélicerte, Les Amans magnifiques, and La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas (Tchemerzine).

One corner slightly bumped; an old library mark to Vol. VIII; otherwise a very handsome and well-preserved set.

Provenance:
– Paul Adam (1862–1920), novelist and art critic, close friend of Jean Lorrain (himself engaged in the famous 1897 duel with Marcel Proust), with his bookplate in Vol. I.
– Several contemporary ex-dono inscriptions (title-pages of Vols. I, II, VII).
– Contemporary ownership inscription on the first leaf of Vol. I.
– Old bookseller’s stamp (“152 rue de Paris”) in Vol. VIII.

References: Damascène Morgand, vol. 3, p. 258; Bibl. moliér. 277; Tchemerzine, vol. 8, p. 359.