GUILLEMAIN DE SAINT-VICTOR, Louis - Lot 61

GUILLEMAIN DE SAINT-VICTOR, Louis Histoire critique des mystères de l'Antiquité ; avec des observations et des Notes sur la Philosophie, la Superstition et les Supercheries des Mages : Enrichie de Remarques sur les Historiens et sur la Chronologie du Monde Hispahan [Paris], 1788, in-12, paperback, in delivery cover, IV, 168 pp. and an engraved frontispiece. Old stamp trace at the bottom of the faux-tittre, rare foxing. Pen-and-ink bookplate on spine of title page. Printed on bluish paper, with a handsome engraved frontispiece. According to Dorbon (2026) and Fesch (col. 724), this is the first version of the original edition, entrusted the previous year to our publisher, who justified the delay in publication and recounted the dispute with the author in a disclaimer in a later edition (1799). Indeed, as the author had sold his manuscript simultaneously to both booksellers, ours would have elegantly given way to the one who had begun selling it under another title... Caillet 4845.