first edition
1696 · Paris
by LE COMTE, P. Louis
Paris: Jean Anisson, 1696. First edition. Two twelvemo volumes (6 1/4 x 3 3/4 inches; 158 x 97 mm). [28], 508; [4], 536 pp. Complete with frontispiece portrait in volume I and 20 additional plates in two volumes, 4 of which are folding. With engraved headpieces.
Full mottled calf. Boards double ruled in gilt. With cherubs as central and corner devices. Spines stamped in gilt with cherubs. Each spine with two red morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. Board edges tooled in gilt. All edges speckled red. Without back flyleaf in volume I. Some light staining throughout. Overall very good.
"Louis le Comte, also Louis-Daniel Lecomte, was a French Jesuit who participated in the 1687 French Jesuit mission to China under Jean de Fontaney. He arrived in China on 7 February 1688. He returned to France in 1691 as Procurator of the Jesuits. His Nouveau memoire sur l'etat present de la Chine, which was published in Paris in 1696, caused great debate within the Chinese Rites Controversy. By 1696, he had been appointed Mathematician to the King of France." (Google Arts & Culture).
HBS 68767.
$2,500. (Inventory #: 68767)
Full mottled calf. Boards double ruled in gilt. With cherubs as central and corner devices. Spines stamped in gilt with cherubs. Each spine with two red morocco spine labels, lettered in gilt. Board edges tooled in gilt. All edges speckled red. Without back flyleaf in volume I. Some light staining throughout. Overall very good.
"Louis le Comte, also Louis-Daniel Lecomte, was a French Jesuit who participated in the 1687 French Jesuit mission to China under Jean de Fontaney. He arrived in China on 7 February 1688. He returned to France in 1691 as Procurator of the Jesuits. His Nouveau memoire sur l'etat present de la Chine, which was published in Paris in 1696, caused great debate within the Chinese Rites Controversy. By 1696, he had been appointed Mathematician to the King of France." (Google Arts & Culture).
HBS 68767.
$2,500. (Inventory #: 68767)