Le Fevre - Les muses de France - 1750

LE FÈVRE, ABBÉ ANTOINE-MICHEL. — THE MUSES IN FRANCE, OR CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS & ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BELLES-LETTRES, SCIENCES & THE FINE ARTS IN FRANCE (PARIS, J. F. QUILLAU FILS, 1750, ORIGINAL EDITION). Paris: J. F. Quillau Fils, 1750. In-12. Full period calf binding, spine adorned with gilded floral motifs. Original Paris edition published in 1750 under the reign of Louis XV. True panorama of the world of letters and the arts in the eighteenth century, this work traces step by step the birth of the great French learned institutions from Charlemagne’s era and the founding of the Sorbonne to the flourishing of the royal academies under Louis XIV and Louis XV. In his Preliminary Discourse, the author invokes the mythology of the nine Muses (Clio, Melpomene, Thalia, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Erato, Calliope, Urania, Polyhymnia) as an allegory of the liberal arts, before detailing the key dates of the establishment of colleges, learned societies, and the role of the pioneers of French culture. A fine copy preserved in its eighteenth-century full calf binding with a tortoiseshell-like finish. Spine adorned with bright gilded floral insets (floral motifs in bloom). Original title piece in morocco leather. The binding’s boards display a pretty tortoiseshell marbling with light wear to the headcaps and corners. Binding is very firm, solid and aesthetically decorative. Interior clean and fresh on period laid paper. Title page well preserved bearing the printer’s mark of the bookseller Quillau and an antique ownership inscription. Published in 1750 — exactly one year before the publication of the very first volume of the famous Encyclopédie by Diderot and d’Alembert — this guide by Abbé Le Fèvre offered scholars across Europe a valuable summary for retracing the origin of each academy and grande école in the kingdom.

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