Essais
“In 1588 a new edition of the Essais, the last published in the author’s lifetime, included a third volume, and this became the definitive text on which all later editions are based” (PMM).
Montaigne's Essais of 1588 preserved in their 17th-century binding.
Paris, 1588.
In-4 of (4) leaves including the title-frontispiece and 504 leaves (misnumbered 496).
Havana calf, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt fleurons, decorated edges, speckled edges, usual old restorations. 17th-century binding.
236 x 188 mm.
Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de. Essays. Fifth edition, enlarged with a third book and six hundred additions to the first two.
Paris, Abel l'Angelier, 1588.
Last edition published during Montaigne’s lifetime, with the 3rd book in its first edition and important corrections he made to the first two.
Tchemerzine, IV, 873; Sayce, 4; Philippe Desan, Bibliotheca Desaniana, 14; Le Petit, 101; Picot, Catalogue of Baron James de Rothschild, no. 140; Catalogue of Baron Ruble, no. 63; Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, no. 9937; En Français dans le texte, no. 73; PMM, no. 95.
“In 1588 a new edition of the Essais, the last published in the author’s life time, included a third volume, and this became the definitive text on which all later editions are based” (PMM).
It “provides the final text which Montaigne determined in its definitive form”
(R. Dezeimeris, Research… on the Essays) … before the corrections by Mademoiselle de Gournay, Montaigne’s adoptive daughter, who steered it toward an interpretation tinged with Christian Stoicism.
“Enlarged with a third book with over 600 additions to the first two books, this ‘fifth’ edition of the Essays—counting the famous ‘missing edition’ (the 1587 edition)—contains 30% more characters compared to the 1582 edition. Abel L’Angelier was among the greatest printer-publishers in Paris at the end of the 16th century, and publishing the Essays with this house gave Montaigne his status as an author. While Montaigne adds only 13% more text to the first two books, the third alone accounts for more than 75% of the additions written between 1580 and 1588, with almost 100,000 words in the 1588 edition. The format, larger than L’Angelier’s usual quarto, gives Montaigne’s book a certain prestige. Most copies were bound in morocco in the nineteenth century” (Philippe Desan).
Books I and II include no fewer than 641 significant additions.
The third book, appearing here for the first time, develops his philosophy, until now only embryonically presented in his first two books, and gives full meaning to the work.
“In 1588, the Essays underwent a new edition, completely reviewed and corrected, enlarged by the third Book. Montaigne would keep a copy of this edition until his death, in which he would add various remarks, reflections, and quotations; Pierre de Brach and Marie de Gournay, the author’s ‘adoptive daughter,’ prepared the posthumous 1595 edition based on this copy. To the first two Books, which had guaranteed the original success of Montaigne, was added, in 1588, a third part; its more rigorously personal and intimate approach assured, more than anything, the Essays’ longevity” (Francis Pottiée-Sperry, En Français dans le texte).
The three major editions of the Essays are that of 1580, which contains the first two books; this one, which presents the third book in its first edition; and finally, to a lesser extent, the 1595 edition.
Valuable copy in 17th-century binding, a rare condition.
