A SUPERB COPY OF THE RAREST AND MOST SUMPTUOUS EDITION OF VOLTAIRE'S WORKS. Oeuvres de M. de Voltaire. Nouvelle édition revue, corrigée et considérablement augmentée par l’auteur. Enrichie de figures en taille-douce.Tome premier [-neuvième].

"CETTE EDITION EST FORT BELLE" (BEUCHOT). THE RARE FIRST DRESDEN EDITION OF VOLTAIRE'S WORKS IN A FINE BINDING WITH TWO PRESTIGIOUS PROVENANCES.

Large 8vo. 9 vols, 8 printed in 1748 and 1 in 1750 (A 10th supplementary volume was issued four years later, in 1754 – here not present and very rarely found to complete the series). First volume with frontispiece portrait of the author engraved by Jean-Joseph Balechou after Maurice Quentin de La Tour's painting; 20 full-page plates (11 to the 1st, 5 to the 4th and 4 to the 5th volume) by Johann Martin Bernigeroth, some of which, according to Bengesco, were engraved after the illustrations of La Henriade (1728, 4to) and others after those of the collected and separate editions of Voltaire's Théâtre. 17 folding plates at the end of the 6th volume illustrating Voltaire's scientific works. 38 plates in total. Half-titles, titles in red and black, engraved vignettes on title-pages, numerous head- and tail-pieces. Bound in strictly contemporary sumptuous fauve calf with gilt-tooled supra libros to centre of upper boards: initials "G. E. M." (not identified) within a shield sided by vegetal decorations and topped by a crown. Later provenance seems to be the personal collection of renowned German bibliographer and librarian Friedrich Adolf Ebert, as the early ms. name "Ebert" on the verso of third volume's front flyleaf would suggests. All edges decorated with attractive "à pois" motive. Double labels with titles and tomaison to richly gilt spines. Original marbled endpapers. Skilfull restorations to the spines. A fine, elegant set.

THE EDITION AND ITS CONTEXT. Important, beautiful and rare edition of Voltaire's works, which is generally known as the first Dresden edition. This was one of the few editions that were authorised and carefully curated by the author and the only edition of his collected works to be banned by the Catholic Church in 1753. The printer Walther came to Dresden from Nuremberg in 1736 and joined the purveyor of books for the royal library, before becoming the court printer to the king. He was, at his own request, recommended to Voltaire by Count Francesco Algarotti who wrote of him, "nella sua professione va dietro all'onore" (Besterman D. 3483), and Voltaire quickly agreed to Walther's proposal for the printing of a new edition of his works. The close and friendly cooperation with Voltaire that lasted until 1755, whereby the partners never got to know each other personally, led to the publication of another, but not considered significant, edition of the work (1752-1770).

Voltaire wished this edition to be the most luxurious issue of his works, which had to introduce him to the aristocrats and the leading intellectual circles of the Eastern European powers. Indeed, not only Voltaire was in a friendly relationship with the King of Prussia, who was a great admirer of the French philosopher and considered him his mentor, but Friedrich II also hosted Voltaire in his territories during his tensions with the French court in Paris. Friedrich the Great introduced Voltaire to the powerful of eastern and northern Europe.

EARLY PROVENANCE. Thanks to the help and experience of the SLUB Dresden librarians, it has been possible to make a comparison with samples of Bünau and Brühl bindings, that is, books from the prestigious private libraries of counts Heinrich von Bünau and Heinrich von Brühl, and establish that the spine designs, type of leather and general style are quite identical. Thus, like the Bünau and Brühl bindings, this set was probably produced at the Royal bookbindery in Dresden. We have not managed to identify the wealthy and socially-elevated bibliophile who owned the set, whose initials are stamped on the covers; nevertheless, thanks to the assistance of the SLUB Dresden librarians, there is reason to believe that the set was sumptuously bound shortly after the publication of the ninth volume and, given the evidence of other sets which as well have strictly contemporary fine bindings, it is conceivable that this may be one of those sets which were especially bound for high dignitaries and aristocrats, mainly from Germany, Northern and Eastern Europe, who were close to the royal court of Dresden, and who were eagerly waiting for their own set of the latest edition of Voltaire's "Oeuvres", which had been advertised as the best edition, the most correct and beautiful in comparison with the those produced earlier (See Brown, "Voltaire et le livre"). It is known that both the printer Walther and Voltaire presented important people with their freshly printed set, after the publication of the ninth volume, some of which appear in the C18.net list of copies available in public and private libraries (see the section "Localisation des exemplaires" at C18.net). Also, a number of these sets show ms. annotations of the author and his helpers, which, together with the known extensive correspondence between Voltaire and the printer, demonstrate how important was to the philosopher that this particular edition resulted perfect and impeccable.

LATER PROVENANCE. Comparison between Friedrich Adolf Ebert's autographs on books from his private collection, which are now kept in SLUB Dresden, suggests that the set must be linked to the renowned bibliographer, who probably owned it. At the age of fifteen, Ebert was appointed to a subordinate post in the municipal library of Leipzig. In 1813, he was attached to the Leipzig University library, and in 1814 was appointed secretary to the Royal Library of Dresden. The rich resources open to him in the Dresden library enabled him to undertake the work on which his reputation chiefly rests, the Allgemeines bibliographisches Lexikon (1821-1830). This was the first work of the kind produced in Germany, and the most scientific published anywhere. From 1823 to 1825, Ebert was librarian to the Duke of Brunswick at Wolfenbüttel. He returned to Dresden in 1827 and was made chief librarian of the Dresden Royal library.

Today this edition seems unobtainable on the market as a complete set. Sold only one time at auction as complete with 10 volumes (Christie's New York, 1976), it was offered for sale in 9 volumes, like the present set, two times in the '80s (Sotheby's New York, 1985; Sotheby's Paris, 1988: an extraordinary copy with annotations by Voltaire and his secretary Longchamp). The very few other auction records that we found concern incomplete copies, some of which, nevertheless, are corrected and inscribed by the author and his helpers in view of the second Dresden edition (1752).

REFERENCES:

C18.NET (Voltaire, Éditions collectives, 1728-1778), Œ48D: "Édition publiée avec la participation de Voltaire. Il en existe plusieurs exemplaires corrigés par Voltaire et ses secrétaires... pour l'historique de cette édition, voir l'article de Martin Fontius et David Smith avec la collaboration d'Andrew Brown, "La publication en 1748 des Œuvres complètes de Mr de Voltaire par Georg Konrad Walther, de Dresde", Voltaire et le livre, 2009, p. 47-66"; BEUCHOT 10; ID., Oeuvres de Voltaire, I, p. VII-VIII: "cette édition est fort belle…la meme année 1748, furent imprimés à Leipzick, chez Breitkof, pour le compte et avec l'adresse de G.-C. Walther de Dresde, huit volumes in-8°…La préface de cette édition est datée de Paris, 1er septembre 1748, et signée H. Dumont et J. Bertaud"; BENGESCO, t. IV, p. 31-38, n° 2129; TRAPNELL 48D; BnC 28-35; MILZA, Voltaire, 2007; QUERARD. Bibliographie voltairienne, p. 95; ID. La France littéraire, X, p. 370: "En tete du primer volume est un fort beau portrait de Voltaire, gravé par Balechou, d'après le tableau de Latour, en 1736…Cette édition est fort belle…Les augmentations fournies par l'auteur sont considérables, et consistent en additions faites aux ouvrages dejà imprimés, ou en ouvrages inédits; par example, la comédie de la Prude. C'est dans cette édition qu'est la version que M. Benchot a suivie pour les vers 3 et 4 de la scène 6 de l'acte III…Cette édition, désignée dans "l'Index librorum prohibitorum", sous le titre vague d'Oeuvres de Voltaire, à Dresde, 1748, fut condamnée par la cour de Rome, par décret du 22 février 1753."; ANNANDALE. "The Publication of Voltaire's Dialogue entre un Brachmane et un Jésuite", in Romance Notes, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Fall 1980), pp. 76-82: 76: "In 1748 an edition of Voltaire's works was published in eight volumes by George Conrad Walther. Two further volumes were later produced…This edition has naturally been accorded considerable attention since Voltaire was directly involved in it from the beginning and it contained a substantial number of revisions, as well as some new works. It is in this edition that Voltaire admitted for the first time the authorship of Zadig and it is here that Le monde come il va first appeared."