Traduction des oeuvres d'Horace en vers françois; avec des extraits des auteurs qui ont travillé sur cette matiere, et des notes pour l'éclaircissement du texte. [Edited by the Abbe Salmon] Salmon, François, Abbé, editor, & Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, translator Classical Literature,Poetry

5 volumes, 12mo, French and Latin text on facing pages; typographic ornaments; full red straight-grain morocco by Kalthoeber, gilt-paneled spines in 6 compartments, gilt-lettered direct in 2, triple gilt rules on covers, a.e.g.; spines a little darkened and all lightly rubbed, but overall a very good, clean and sound set. Armorial bookplate of Arthur Atherley. Kalthoeber's ticket on verso of front free endpaper in volume I. In the preface the editor says that the French translations here are taken from various publications, whichever seemed best. Many, however, are taken from a manuscript that was produced 23 years earlier by a young man who turned from poetry to science as his life's work. It is certainly likely that the person in question was Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657-1757), whose Plurality of Worlds (1686) "awakened general interest in astronomy and popularized the scientific system of inquiry" (Oxford Companion). This conjecture is borne out by the gilt titles on the spines of this set that read "Horace de Fontenelle." Mills College Check List 644; Riedel-Horatiana A-185; Brunet III, 329; Graesse III, 367.