[JOHNSON, Samuel] Maximilien de Béthune Sully [duc de]

Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, prime minister to Henry the Great; containing the history of the life and reign of that monarch, and his own administration under him. Translated from the French, by the Author of the Female Quixote [Charlotte Lennox]. To which is added, The Tryal of Ravaillac for the Murder of Henry the Great. In Five Volumes.

London: Printed for J. Rivington and Sons (et al), 1778. "A New Edition." Five octavo volumes. Modern half-calf over marbled boards, with printed linen spine labels; two portraits; folding map; pp. xxxiii,414 + viii,399 + vii,416 + ix,473 + vi,226,[270 = Index]. Complete, Very Good or better set in a presentable if somewhat plain 20th-century binding. Occasional marginal foxing to text, but generally a clean, well-preserved set. Blind-embossed ex-libris of the Metropolitan Club, Washington DC, to each title page.

The dedication is signed by the translator, Charlotte Lennox, but is said to have been in fact written by Samuel Johnson (Cf. Hazen, Samuel Johnson's Prefaces & Dedications, New Haven, 1937). The map, inserted before text in v.II, is A New and Accurate Map of France for Sully's Memoirs by Thomas Kitchin. The engraved portrait of Bethune is after P.P. Rubens.

Price: $500.00

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