Les Oeuvres de M. Francois Rabelais, Docteur en Médecine. Dont le contenu se voit à la page suivante. Augmentées de la vie de l'Auteur & de quelques Remarques sur la vic & sur l'histoire. Avec l'explication de tous les mots difficiles. Et la Clef nouvellement augumentée. Tome I: xxiv, 1 - 488 pp plus contents; Tome II: 489 - 945 pp plus contents. Third Elzevir Edition (Unstated), Original Leather Binding, complete as a set, 5.25 x 3.25", 16mo. In fair condition. Leather boards scuffed at edges and worn/bumped at corners. Leather heads and tails of both volumes lacking; headband of Vol. I lacking. Front hinges split, cording exposed. Rear hinge of Vol. II split. Tail of rear hinge of Vol. II split. Raised bands on spines rubbed, but intact. Gilt lettering and deco on spines rubbed & soiled, barely legible. Edges of text-blocks speckled red. Gilt dentelles also dulled and soiled. Ownership plates on both front paste-downs: R. Carlton Seitz. Tipped-in bibliographic information found on Vol. I's front end-page. Front gutter split at Vol. I's title page with exposed cording. Previous ownership initials found on both front end-page's (verso) top edges. Text-blocks normally toned; original binding intact with fragile hinges. Please see photos and ask questions, if any, before purchasing. Francois Rabelais (born between 1483 and 1494 & died 1553) was a French writer who has been called the first great French prose author. A humanist of the French Renaissance and Greek scholar, he attracted opposition from both John Calvin and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Though in his day he was best known as a physician, scholar, diplomat, and Catholic priest, he later became better known as a satirist, for his depictions of the grotesque, and for his larger-than-life characters. Both ecclesiastical and anticlerical, Christian and freethinker, a doctor and a bon vivant, the multiple facets of his personality sometimes seem contradictory. Caught up in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais treated the great questions of his time in his novels. Rabelais is widely known for the first two volumes relating the childhoods of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel written in the style of bildungsroman, his later works - the Third Book (which prefigures the philosophical novel) and the Fourth Book are considerably more erudite in tone. Elzevir is the name of a family of Dutch booksellers, publishers, and printers of the 17th and early 18th centuries. The duodecimo series of "Elzevirs" became very famous and very desirable among bibliophiles (like ourselves), who sought to obtain the tallest and freshest copies of these books. Although it appears the family was involved with the book trade as early as the 16th century, it is only known for its work in some detail beginning with Lodewijk Elzevir. The fame of the Elzevir editions rests chiefly on the works issued by the firm of Bonaventura and Abraham Elzevir. Their Greek and Hebrew impressions are considered inferior to those of the Aldines and the Estiennes, but their small editions in 12mo, 16mo, and 24mo, for their elegance of design, neatness, clearness, regularity of type, and beauty of paper, cannot be surpassed. Elzevir published this work "anonymously," i.e. they did not add their names as publisher's or insert their usual printer's device of the tree of knowledge. They most likely did this because of the controversial nature of the subject material. Original Elzevir Binding! Presentable; gift quality. RAREE1675HOPQ 04/24 - HK 1398
