1732 1st English Edition ,
HENRIADE
AN EPICK POEM. IN TEN CANTO’S.
Translated from the French into English Blank Verse. To Which Are Now Added, The Argument to Each Canto, and Large Notes Historical and Critical.
A handsome and bibliographically interesting early English Voltaire: the first English edition of La Henriade, published in London for C. Davis in 1732, complete with engraved frontispiece and title in red and black. A notable Enlightenment translation, usually attributed to John Lockman, bringing Voltaire’s celebrated epic on Henri IV and the French Wars of Religion to an English readership only four years after the definitive French La Henriade of 1728.
By Voltaire
Author Bio: François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire (1694–1778), was one of the central writers of the French Enlightenment: poet, polemicist, historian, dramatist, and philosopher. Though modern readers most readily think of Candide, eighteenth-century readers knew him above all as the author of La Henriade, the ambitious national epic that helped establish his early European fame.
Synopsis: Author / work context: first issued in 1723 as La Ligue and expanded into La Henriade in 1728, the poem takes as its hero Henri IV / Henry of Navarre and centers on the siege of Paris during the French Wars of Religion. Voltaire’s larger aim was both literary and political: to create a modern French epic in conscious rivalry with Virgil, while advancing a vision of monarchy tempered by clemency, civil order, and religious toleration.
In narrative terms, the poem sets Henri against fanaticism, faction, and dynastic violence. The present English edition retains the substantial historical and critical apparatus, and the photographed “Argument” leaf shows the expected emphasis on Henry III, the Catholic League, the Duke of Guise, Elizabeth I, Navarre’s English alliance, and the contrast between political necessity and religious extremism. A key early Voltaire text, and an important English witness to the European circulation of Enlightenment ideas before the better-known philosophical tales.
Binding: Hardcover, Octavo (Standard) (8vo 6 × 9 in 152 × 229 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Collation: vi, [20], 311, [1] pp. + engraved frontispiece.
Language: English
Published By: Printed for C. Davis, in Pater-Noster-Row, London
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Good - Contemporary calf, much rubbed and scuffed, with wear to corners and edges, and loss of the original spine label. Spine still attractive, with raised bands and panel tooling; boards attached and the volume remains shelf-stable. Front inner paperwork shows old repair / reinforcement, visible at the pastedown and endpaper. Old ink ownership inscription to title; later pencilled bibliographical note to front endpaper.
Internally a respectable, unsophisticated copy for the period: frontispiece present; title present; text generally clean enough with expected age toning, some staining / offsetting, and occasional signs of use. Lower fore-margin stain visible to contents leaf; final note leaf present. A sound, honest example of the first English Henriade in period binding, with good antiquarian presence.
Collation:
Complete, with engraved frontispiece present, title in red and black, contents / errata leaf present, and terminal note leaf present. Foxon records the edition as 8vo with engraved frontispiece; Bowyer evidence records it as a London printing for C. Davis and notes that Bowyer printed the whole work.
References:
ESTC T137613
Bengesco, Voltaire: Bibliographie de ses oeuvres, II, no. 1558
Foxon V539
Bowyer, An Early London Printing House at Work (for the Bowyer printing evidence and collation note)..
SKU: BTETM0001761
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
1732 1st English Edition ,
HENRIADE
AN EPICK POEM. IN TEN CANTO’S.
Translated from the French into English Blank Verse. To Which Are Now Added, The Argument to Each Canto, and Large Notes Historical and Critical.
A handsome and bibliographically interesting early English Voltaire: the first English edition of La Henriade, published in London for C. Davis in 1732, complete with engraved frontispiece and title in red and black. A notable Enlightenment translation, usually attributed to John Lockman, bringing Voltaire’s celebrated epic on Henri IV and the French Wars of Religion to an English readership only four years after the definitive French La Henriade of 1728.
By Voltaire
Author Bio: François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire (1694–1778), was one of the central writers of the French Enlightenment: poet, polemicist, historian, dramatist, and philosopher. Though modern readers most readily think of Candide, eighteenth-century readers knew him above all as the author of La Henriade, the ambitious national epic that helped establish his early European fame.
Synopsis: Author / work context: first issued in 1723 as La Ligue and expanded into La Henriade in 1728, the poem takes as its hero Henri IV / Henry of Navarre and centers on the siege of Paris during the French Wars of Religion. Voltaire’s larger aim was both literary and political: to create a modern French epic in conscious rivalry with Virgil, while advancing a vision of monarchy tempered by clemency, civil order, and religious toleration.
In narrative terms, the poem sets Henri against fanaticism, faction, and dynastic violence. The present English edition retains the substantial historical and critical apparatus, and the photographed “Argument” leaf shows the expected emphasis on Henry III, the Catholic League, the Duke of Guise, Elizabeth I, Navarre’s English alliance, and the contrast between political necessity and religious extremism. A key early Voltaire text, and an important English witness to the European circulation of Enlightenment ideas before the better-known philosophical tales.
Binding: Hardcover, Octavo (Standard) (8vo 6 × 9 in 152 × 229 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Collation: vi, [20], 311, [1] pp. + engraved frontispiece.
Language: English
Published By: Printed for C. Davis, in Pater-Noster-Row, London
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Good - Contemporary calf, much rubbed and scuffed, with wear to corners and edges, and loss of the original spine label. Spine still attractive, with raised bands and panel tooling; boards attached and the volume remains shelf-stable. Front inner paperwork shows old repair / reinforcement, visible at the pastedown and endpaper. Old ink ownership inscription to title; later pencilled bibliographical note to front endpaper.
Internally a respectable, unsophisticated copy for the period: frontispiece present; title present; text generally clean enough with expected age toning, some staining / offsetting, and occasional signs of use. Lower fore-margin stain visible to contents leaf; final note leaf present. A sound, honest example of the first English Henriade in period binding, with good antiquarian presence.
Collation:
Complete, with engraved frontispiece present, title in red and black, contents / errata leaf present, and terminal note leaf present. Foxon records the edition as 8vo with engraved frontispiece; Bowyer evidence records it as a London printing for C. Davis and notes that Bowyer printed the whole work.
References:
ESTC T137613
Bengesco, Voltaire: Bibliographie de ses oeuvres, II, no. 1558
Foxon V539
Bowyer, An Early London Printing House at Work (for the Bowyer printing evidence and collation note)..
SKU: BTETM0001761
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 2Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
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