Spotlight

MORÉRI, Louis (1643-1680). Le Grand Dictionnaire historique, ou Le Mélange curieux de l'Histoire sacrée et profane... Nouvelle Édition, dans laquelle on a refondu les Suppléments de M. L'abbé Goujet. Le tout revu, corrigé & augmenté par M. Drouet.

Paris, Chez les Libraires associés, 1759.

10 volumes folio (410x265 mm). With a frontispiece by Desmarets and a portrait of Moréri by De Troye, both engraved by Thomassin and a head-piece by Boucher engraved by Tardieu fils. Contemporary red morocco gilt, sides with border of an ornate roll and central coat of arms, back on raised bands with gilt monogram in panels, ocre lettering and numbering labels, marbled edges. Some slight scuffing, spines sunned.

A beautiful copy of the last and most complete edition bound for the Prince Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg.

"From 1674 to 1759, this important predecessor to modern encyclopedias went through twenty editions, before it finally succumbed to the Encyclopédie ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des metiers. Moreri designed his encyclopedic work partly as a defense of the worldview of the Roman Catholic Church, and that editorial approach prompted competition from a rival encyclopedia, Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique. Moreri's work is noteworthy for its emphasis on historical and biographical entries, neglected by Bayle as well as by other competitors such as Ephraim Chamber's Cyclopedia" (The ARTFL Project, University of Chicago).

Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg was an Austrian and Czech diplomat and statesman in the Habsburg Monarchy. A proponent of enlightened absolutism, he held the office of State Chancellor for about four decades and was responsible for the foreign policies during the reigns of Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and Leopold II. In 1764, he was elevated to the noble rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (Reichfürst). Kaunitz was a great patron of the arts and his artistic network, which influenced Viennese cultural life for more than a half a century, was substantially related to his French oriented political strategy, but also to his personal preferences. He owned an extensive library which was housed in his palace in the Viennese borough of Mariahilf. Some books were apparently sold at public auction in 1823 by his grandson, Prince Aloys von Kaunitz-Rietberg-Questenberg.

PROVENANCE: Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (1711-1794), with his coat of arms and monogram on the binding.

REFERENCES: Brunet III, 1091; Saffroy I, 10049; PMM 155 (éd. 1674).

CHF 12 000