first edition Contemporary French calf, gilt spine with brown morocco label
1731 · A Paris:
by [Routh, Bernard]
A Paris: Chez Cailleau…Brunet fils…[et al.], 1731 First edition. Contemporary French calf, gilt spine with brown morocco label. Octavo. Rubberstamp on two terminal blanks. Otherwise a fine, clean copy. The first full-length criticism of Milton in French (except, arguably, for Voltaire's essay on epic poetry). The author is Bernard Routh (1695-1768) an Jesuit professor at the Irish college at Poitiers, who wrote several esteemed critical works. The composition of these letters was no doubt encouraged, if not inspired, by the first French translation of Paradise Lost, published in 1729, which is in fact advertised on the page opposite the first page of text. In many eighteenth-century French editions of Milton, Routh's letters are appended as a standard criticism, rather as Addison's Spectator essays are added to the English editions.
(Inventory #: 7366)