FIFTH-CENTURY GAUL: HANDSOME 1742 EDITION OF DUBOS’ HISTOIRE CRITIQUE

DUBOS, Abbé [Jean-Baptiste]. Histoire Critique de L’Etablissement de la Monarchie Françoise Dans Les Gaules. Paris: Pierre-Françoise Giffart, 1742. Five books bound in three volumes. 12mo, contemporary full brown calf, gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled endpapers. $900.

First 12mo edition in handsome contemporary binding, with folding map of fifth-century Gaul.

Considered his “most significant historical work,” Abbot Dubos’ Histoire “created a new method of writing history based on research and remained definitive during the 19th century” (Cabeen, 266). Text in French. The work was first published in France in 1734 in three quarto volumes; this first 12mo edition was published the same year as a second quarto edition in two volumes. With all half-titles; title-pages printed in black and red. Brunet VI, 1256. Bookplates. Early owner inscription.

Text very clean and crisp. A handsome set in contemporary binding.