Le Langage de la Raison
CARACCIOLI], [L-A.
Par l'Auteur de la Jouissance de soi-meme.
Published: Bassompierre Liege, 1763
Stock code: 8583
Price: £134.00
8vo., on laid paper, with decorative title, small neat contemporary signature on half-title, some negligible marginal age-staining on a few leaves; contemporary full speckled calf, back with five raised bands, second compartment with red leather label lettered and ruled in gilt, all other compartments framed and tooled in gilt to a floral design, marbled endpapers, red edges, upper hinge cracked (but binding entirely sound), two small worm-holes at tail of backstrip, a crisp, clean copy.
Complete with half-title; wanting one blank preliminary.Louis-Antoine Caraccioli (1723-1803) was a prolific writer of poetry, history, fiction and biography. Born in Paris, he served as colonel to Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and so travelled widely throughout Europe. Despite close ties to both Louis XV and Louis XVI he managed to survive the Revolution, though eventually he died in penury. The broad thematic range of his works makes him interesting to scholars of manners and many other subjects. He is best known among bibliophiles for two publications printed with coloured inks: Le livre de quatre couleurs (1757) and Le livre à la mode (1759) But the full list of his works is much longer ('trop fécond' complains the ungenerous Nouvelle Biographie Générale), and many of them are of interest. The present work was first published in Paris by Nyon earlier in the same year. It remained popular throughout the eighteenth century and was translated into English as 'The Language of Reason' in 1802. This edition, the first non-French issue, is scarce.