Œuvres
The first original collective edition of Molière's Works printed in Paris in 1682.
One of the rare copies preserved in its contemporary binding, with an armorial provenance from the time: Nicolas Bertin, counselor to King Louis XIV.
8 volumes in-12, mottled brown calf, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons, decorated edges, marbled edges, minor customary restorations.
Strictly contemporary binding.
162 x 97mm.
Molière, known as Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. The Works of Monsieur de Molière. Revised, corrected, and expanded, enriched with engraved illustrations.
Paris, Denis Thierry, 1682.
First collected edition of the Works of Molière. Printed in 1682, it is the first complete edition and the first illustrated one.
Tchemerzine, V, 287; Guibert, 609-650.
It is here preserved in its authentic and attractive contemporary binding.
A few years after Molière’s death (1673), his widow Armande Béjart turned to La Grange, a former friend of Molière, himself an actor and loyal to his memory, for a publication of the complete works. La Grange thus received Molière’s manuscripts from the hands of Armande Béjart and prepared the famous 1682 edition, in collaboration with Vivot and perhaps also Marcel, another actor.
This 1682 edition consists of two distinct parts.
The first six volumes contain the plays of Molière already printed during the author’s lifetime. Volumes VII and VIII present six plays in first edition that had been performed but not printed at Molière’s death: "Don Garcie de Navarre", "L’impromptu de Versailles", "Don Juan", "Melicerte", "Les Amants magnifiques", and "La comtesse d’Escarbagnas". Following this appears "L’ombre de Molière" by Brécourt.
This is the first illustrated edition of the Works of Molière. It is adorned with 30 engravings by J. Sauvé after Brissart.
Vivot assisted La Grange. A lover of paintings, he had an eye and artistic knowledge that helped in choosing the illustrator and the illustrations themselves.
“This edition must rightly be considered the most complete of the seventeenth-century editions. Stage directions are introduced, and, for the first time, each comedy is preceded by an engraving, particularly valuable for the attitudes and costumes of the characters” (Guibert, II, 612).
Precious copy, large-margined, preserved in its contemporary brown calf binding, one of the rarest to have an armorial provenance from the seventeenth century: Nicolas Bertin, counselor to King Louis XIV, honorary maître des requêtes of his chapel, with armorial ex-libris.
