MARMONTEL (M. [Jean-François]). Belisaire. Par M. Marmontel, De l'Académie Françoise. A Paris, Chez Merlin, Libraire, rue de la Harpe, A l'Image S. Joseph, 1767. Avec Approbation, & Privilége du Roi.12mo; half-title present; blank leaf follows last page of Préface; [ ] ii, a vi, A-I, K-O xii, P iv; pp.[4 (half-title and title)]+x (Preface)+[ii]+340+[iii (Approbation / Privilége)]; text-paper binder's blank before half-title, text-paper end-papers; original full sprinkled calf, spine with five raised bands, ruled and tooled (and in one case lettered) gilt in compartments. Leather cracked and a little chipped over back joint; front joint slightly cracking; corners of boards a trifle worn; small burn hole in blank upper margin of half-title; small hole due to an original paper flaw in blank lower margin of leaf D i; otherwise a nice copy.

First edition, first issue (the Approbation later being suppressed) and the earliest state of text (without the ‘Addition' leaf that was added later to some copies): copy on ordinary paper, without plates. The ‘Catalogue hebdomadaire' lists three issues for the 7th February 1767: one 12mo, without plates, at 2 livres, as here (which we refer to below as ‘A'); one 12mo, with plates, at 3 livres (which we refer to as ‘C'); and one 8vo, with plates, at 5 livres (which we refer to as ‘B'). All three issues are set to the same measure, and the pagination is the same, but ‘A' was signed and gathered in sixes up to gathering ‘O', the final gathering, ‘P', being of four leaves, the first two of which bear respectively the signature marks P and Pii. It appears to have been printed first, the formes being then unlocked and re-imposed for printing as 8vo, the page signatures being appropriately altered at the same time, all but the last: the second leaf of the final signature, ‘Z', retaining, the original 12mo signature ‘Pii'. This provides a logical sequence, if not actual proof, that ‘A' was printed in advance of ‘B', and also shows that the type used was the same. It may be hypothesised that the plates were not ready by the time that ‘A' was printed (and perhaps, bound). Issues ‘A' and ‘B' share certain other peculiarities, not shared by ‘C', which suggest a closer relationship between them than with that: both for example have the full stop after ‘PRÉFACE' on p.[i] raised level with the mid-stroke of the ‘E', where in ‘C' it is correctly aligned. Likewise the type ornaments in ‘A' and ‘B' are the same, but those in ‘C' are sometimes different (the head-ornament on p.[i] for instance, or the tail ornament on p.20 or p.32) suggesting that though the type was kept standing, some at least of the type ornaments may have been plundered for use elsewhere before ‘C' came to be printed. Revisions and corrections, sometimes erroneous, were carried out between each of the three printings: the drop-head ‘BELISAIRE' on p.1 of ‘A', for instance, was corrected to ‘BÉLISAIRE' in ‘B', but restored to ‘BELISAIRE' in ‘C', presumably because that capital ‘E' had not been accented either in the title-page or running heads, though other capitalised acute ‘E's had been, as, for example, throughout, in ‘PRÉFACE'. The major differences in text, however, as far as a brief examination can determine, are not between ‘A' and ‘B', but between them and ‘C' (opening the volumes pretty well at random we find on p.viij, for example, ‘A' and ‘B' read ‘L'historien Procope' whilst ‘C' reads ‘L'Historien Procope'; on p.18 the antepenultimate line in ‘C' reads ‘savez' where the other two read ‘scavez'; on p.205 ‘change;' in the last line in ‘A' and ‘B' becomes ‘change,' in ‘C'). There is at least one difference in lineation also: though all three issues are set generally 24 lines to the page p.326 has an extra line in ‘A' and ‘B', but the correct number of lines in ‘C'. Other variants (pp.19 and 92, which are one line short, and pp.94, and 124, which have an extra line) are the same in all three printings. The text of Bélisaire ends on p.272, the remaining pages being occupied by a reprint of Marmontel's "Fragmens De Philosopie morale", this being supplied with a fly-title included in the pagination. Marmontel's views on toleration and freedom of opinion, as expressed in ‘Bélisaire' have earned it a place in eighteenth century philosophical thought as well as fiction.

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