1718 ❧ BOILEAU-DESPREAUX, NICOLAS. Oeuvres. Amsterdam: David Mortier, 1718. 2 volumes, folio (366 x 239 mm). Engraved allegorical frontispiece, large folding portrait plate, and 6 full-page engraved plates by Bernard Picart; engraved vignette repeated on each title-page, numerous engraved headpieces, tailpieces, and initial letters throughout. Some marginal soiling. Contemporary red morocco gilt, spines with contrasting lettering pieces. Extremities lightly rubbed. Provenance: Theodora Konstantinou (bookplate). FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. While David Mortier had issued editions of Boileau's works starting in 1714, this landmark 1718 folio stands as the first heavily annotated and fully illustrated edition of the text. Celebrated by bibliographers like Brunet for its 'beautiful typographical execution and fine prints,' the work represents a pinnacle of Dutch Golden Age book production aimed squarely at elite European collectors. The volume's aesthetic brilliance is driven by the celebrated French printmaker Bernard Picart, whose precise, rococo-infused engraving style lends a grand, theatrical weight to Boileau's neoclassical satires and poems. Of note is the prominent title-page vignette depicting Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus, a deliberate visual pairing that frames Boileau not merely as a court satirist to Louis XIV, but as a critical, intellectual successor to the humanistic tradition. Every individual leaf of text is meticulously set within an ornamental typographical border, distinguishing this edition as a true édition de luxe. Brunet I: 1058; Cohen-de Ricci, 165-166. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing