£60
8vo, pp. vii, [i], 358. Contemporary marbled sheep, spine divided by gilt rules, red morocco label, edges speckled blue. A touch toned, a few openings marked. Rubbed, wear to extremities, some patches of insect damage with loss of leather, flyleaf sometime excised. Several ownership inscriptions of Charles Kinloch, some dated 1803, a few marginal profile doodles in ink and pencil throughout.
A scarce edition of what became quite a popular guide to learning French, frequently reprinted through the first half of the nineteenth century, and first printed in 1781. The author, 'A. Scot', is somewhat ambiguous. ESTC identifies him as 'active 1785' but apart from snippets on title-pages - this edition identifies him as 'Fellow of the University of Paris' - there appears to be no real information about him. It is possible that the name was chosen to evoke the 16th-century linguist and jurist Alexander Scot (d. 1615), a native of Aberdeen who lived much of his life in France and wrote an important grammar of Greek (though he had no particular connection to Paris) - akin to the way 'Webster' became a generic term for a dictionary. All early printings are fairly scarce, with this sixth edition recorded in just 2 locations by Library Hub - NLS and BL.
