Four volumes bound in six. Small octavo. With a total of 16 engraved or etched plates, some as frontispiece. Pp. Vol. I: lxxvi, 257; 40; 108, plus 6 plates; Vol. II: xxxviii, 456, plus 2 plates; Vol. III: cxxxvi, 326, plus 2 plates; Vol. IV: 336, plus 2 plates; Vol. V: clx, 332, plus 2 plates; Vol. VI: 398, ccxvi (extended chronology), plus 2 plates. Hardcover, uniformly bound in contemporary duo-tint boards, spines gilt, each spine with volume number within gilt shield and with black lettering-piece in gilt. Some superficial rubbing to boards, some endpapers browned, minor age related blemished here and there, persistent dampmark to top edge of one volume. Withal a lovely set in good condition. ~ Various editions. Vol. I: second edition, 1792; II: fourth edition, 1815; Vol. III-IV: second edition, 1806; Vol. V-VI: third edition, 1815. The charming plates were made by Antoine Cosme Giraud (etcher) and Vincent Marie Langlois (engraver), after originals by Jean Michel Moreau and Jean Baptiste Simonet. Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne (1743-1793) was a leader of the French Protestants and a moderate French revolutionary. He was guillotined in December 1793. Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle (1766-1855) was historian and journalist. He continued Rabaut's work and completed most of it while in prison. Very rare in its completeness.
