£250
12mo, pp. [ii], xxxv, [i], 500 + folding engraved map. Contemporary sheep, spine divided by double gilt rules, black morocco label. Map somewhat creased at folds, some soiling. Binding rubbed and marked, a little wear to corners and endcaps, front endpapers rather dusty.
A rare edition of Fénelon's popular and influential novel, printed in London for the Francophone market of expatriates following the French Revolution. This was something of a specialty for the Spilsbury family (Thomas and his sons William and Charles), from whose press dozens of French texts are recorded by ESTC starting, around 1790. But this particular text is not found in ESTC, nor in COPAC: we have been able to trace just one other copy of this edition, at Columbia. There is another edition of the same date also recorded solely in one copy in Worldcat, at the University of British Columbia, but that is a different printing, in two volumes with separate pagination.
