“EVERY BODY BOASTS OF FRIENDSHIP, BUT FEW KNOW IT”

DE SACY, Louis Silvestre. A Discourse of Friendship. London: Printed for the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1707. 12mo, contemporary full gilt-paneled burgundy morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $1100.

Scarce first edition in English of de Sacy’s philosophical reflections on friendship, handsomely bound in contemporary morocco-gilt.

"Whether considered in the light of Ancients like Aristotle or Cicero, or French Moderns such as Montaigne, La Fontaine and Saint-Évremond, friendship became in the Age of Enlightenment a common subject in all aspects of French cultural life and literary forms of discourse. It was much reflected upon in salons, in correspondences and in philosophical treatises. Indeed, there were more than ten such treatises specifically on the matter published over the course of the [18th] century," the present work, first published in 1703 as Traité de l'amitié, being among the earliest (Johnson, 185). Without final blank.

Marginal embrowning, inner paper hinges split, contemporary morocco handsome, gilt bright. A lovely volume. Scarce.