Essai sur la physiognomonie, destiné à faire connoître l'homme & à le faire aimer.

4 vols, folio: [2]-x-294-[1], viii-404, viii-360, viii-328 pp., 193 pl. (tear in vol. 3, p. 93, foxing to some ll. and pl., some ll. sl. brown., occ. waterstains and other sm. stains, stamps and shelf-marks cancelled).

Cont. cased binding: full pink paste paper, flat spines, beige leather title labels (very used, rubbed, strongly dulled corners). Wide-margined and untrimmed copy

Nice edition of the French translation of the main work of the Swiss philosopher and theologian Lavater (1741-1801), with the rare 4th vol. published posthumously in 1803. Ill. with 193 plates (14, 78, 53, 48) sometimes printed recto-verso, title vignettes, head- and tailpieces, and numerous etchings in text (except 1 mezzotint, IV-223) by various artists, in particular Schelleberg and J.H. Lips after Chodowiecki. Edition translated not after the original edition in German, but "sur un manuscrit où l'auteur a refondu plusieurs morceaux du texte, arrangé les matières dans un nouvel ordre & ajouté de nouveaux jugemens" (translator's preface, vol. 1, p. x). Without the advices to the bookbinder (except in vol. 4, incl. in the pagin.). Ref. Cohen 606. - Reynaud 296. - Blake 258. - Conlon 81:1347. - Caillet 6229 (19th-cent. ed.). - Wellcome III:459 (other editions). Prov. Ms. mention of sale and price, dated 1814, in vol. 4.