LETTRES CABALISTIQUES, 1754, vol III

(ARGENS, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d')

1754, La Haye, chez Pierre Paupie

LETTRES CABALISTIQUES, ou Correspondane philosophique, historique & critique : entre deux cabalistes, divers esprits elementaires, & le seigneur Astaroth...

Vol III / Tome Troisieme

hard cover, 5-1/2 x 3-1/2" (12mo)

18th century full calf, gold-titled on the five-ridge spine. Front cover joint reinforced with conservator's Japanese mending paper, signature of first or early owner has been sliced out of one of the title pages; text clean and fine throughout the entire 317 pages

Inked commentary in a very fine tiny 18th century hand appears on pages 133, 135, 171 & 221

Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens (1704-1771), French rationalist, author and critic of the Catholic church, close friend of Voltaire.
He spent 25 years in the court of Frederick the Great, challenging authoritarian religion, and writing in favor of empirical reason, Deism and personal ethics. His writings, Lettres juives (1738), Lettres cabalistiques (1741) and Lettres chinoises (1739-40), were patterned after Montesquieu's Lettres persanes 1721).

Ex libris : Francis Moylen Fitts (outer margin of title page bears small stamped impression "MOYLAN")

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