Les Amours de Carite et Polydore. Roman Traduit du Grec
Paris: s.i., 1760. First Edition. Small octavo (16cm). Contemporary mottled calf gilt; page edges trimmed and dyed red; 6,[1]-135pp. Joints and board edges scuffed, with small loss at crown; text fresh and solidly bound; Very Good. Ex-libris Harold E. Nutzhorn, with his ink signature to front endpaper and stamp to front fly leaf. Text entirely in French.
An early work by Barthélemy, Jesuit priest, linguist and classical scholar best remembered for his hugely popular historical romance Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grèce (1787). The current work, though subtitled "Roman traduit du Grec," is in fact an original work, a literary pastiche in the form of a romance of manners, set in antiquity. New editions appeared in 1799 and 1826, but the first edition is rather scarce - surprisingly so, in fact; we note only about a dozen physical locations worldwide, of which only three are in North American institutions. BARBIER I:146. CIORANESCU 9881.
Price: $200.00