Quarto (310 x 229 mm). (2) ff., XI-300 pp., (1) f.
Parma-violet morocco, gilt roll and fillets, raised bands tooled in blind and gilt, gilt roll to board edges, gilt edges, gilt roll to turn-ins (Simier R. du roi).
Illustrated edition, the large-paper copy cited by Cohen.
One of 150 copies on heavy Angoulême vellum paper, with the plates before letters — the only ones to contain the opera Castor et Pollux "which was not joined to the rest of the edition" (Cohen).
The opera Castor et Pollux, dedicated to Madame de Pompadour, was first performed on 24 October 1737 with music composed by Rameau (1683–1784). The son of a sculptor from Grenoble, the man who received the title of the French Anacreon and was nicknamed "le Gentil-Bernard" by Voltaire was appointed librarian of the King's cabinet at the Château de Choisy.
A superb copy, in a binding signed "SIMIER R. DU ROI" at the foot of the spine, a mark he applied only from 1818 onwards.
Cohen, 133–134 and Suppl., 1085 – Sander, 124.
From the libraries of Jules Noilly (1886, no. 207); Adrien-Louis Lebeuf de Montgermont (1911, no. 12); Antoine Vautier (1971, no. 5); and Pierre Berès (2007, VI, no. 237).
