ENTRETIENS DE PHOCION

Paris: A. Renouard, [An] XII, [1804]. 173 x 103 mm. (6 7/8 x 4"). xl, 239, [1] pp.
EXCELLENT DARK BLUE STRAIGHT-GRAIN MOROCCO, GILT, BY BOZERIAN (signed at tail of spine), covers with a frame of double gilt rules and cresting palmette roll, flat spine divided into panels with swirling medallion centerpiece, turn-ins with bead and star roll, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Engraved frontispiece portrait of Mably, title page with medallion portrait of Phocion. A Large Paper Copy. Brunet III, 1264. ◆Just the slightest hint of rubbing to joints and extremities, a handful of leaves with faint browning, but clearly A FINE COPY, the text clean and fresh with extremely ample margins, and the binding lustrous and scarcely worn.

This is a restrained yet elegant binding from the Bozerian atelier on a work by the French philosopher Mably (1709-85). First published in 1763, "Conversations of Phocion" sets forth major themes in Mably's own thought in the guise of a series of dialogues between the 4th century B.C. Greek statesman and various contemporaries. Our author was a friend of Jean Jacques Rousseau and was influenced by his writings on republicanism and natural human equality. A short biography of the writer by Gabriel Brizard begins this work. Active in Paris during the first quarter of the 19th century, the Bozerian binderies produced many fine books that are praised today especially for their technical achievement and elegance of design. François Bozerian, generally called Bozerian le jeune (1765 - ca. 1818), was known to have worked from just after the turn of the century until his death, and for much of that time, he worked with his elder brother Jean-Claude (1762-1840). Among other distinguished work, the Bozerians did a considerable number of bindings for the Imperial Library at the instigation of Joseph Van Praet, the librarian responsible for building much of the original collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale..