1763 ❧ Exhaustive numismatic treatise. MANGEART, THOMAS. 1695-1762. Introduction à la science des médailles, pour servir à la connoissance des dieux, de la religion, des sciences, des arts, et de tout ce qui appartient à l'histoire ancienne, avec les preuves tirées des médailles. Edited by Abbé Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Marie de Grainville. Paris: Chez D'Houry, Imprimeur-Libraire de Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans, et se trouve aussi chez Davidts & Tilliard, 1763. Folio (419 x 266 mm). Title page printed in red and black with an engraved armorial vignette; engraved vignette head-pieces and historiated initials in text; 35 full-page copper-engraved. Some signs of age and chipping to free endpapers, occasional toning. Contemporary French apple-green morocco gilt, spine in 7 compartments with 6 raised bands, compartments gilt-tooled with fleuron corner-pieces and alternating central tooling of classical lyre and a crown flanking a noble monogram initial, edges gilt, probably by Derome. Spine slightly faded, corners very lightly bumped. FIRST EDITION. This monumental publication stands as one of the most comprehensive and visually engaging numismatic reference manuals produced during the European Enlightenment. Written by Dom Thomas Mangeart, a learned Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint-Vanne and Saint-Hydulphe who served as the official antiquarian and librarian to Duke Charles Alexander of Lorraine, the volume was intentionally structurally compiled to function as a crucial standalone supplement to Dom Bernard de Montfaucon's legendary multi-volume work, L'Antiquité expliquée. Tragically, Mangeart passed away just prior to the book's final distribution; the dense, textually rigorous manuscript was finalized, indexed, and pushed through the presses of printer-publisher Laurent-Charles D'Houry under the watchful editorial curation of the Abbé de Grainville. Rather than serving as a standard catalog of individual coins, Mangeart utilized ancient coinage as empirical historical evidence to reconstruct classical religious pantheons, architectural progress, ancient sciences, and military costume across Greece and Rome. Chalmers claims that in this book Mangeart collected 'in a single volume the elementary knowledge of medals which had before been treated but too slightly.' Brunet III: 1362; Chalmers, The General Biographical Dictionary, Vol. XXI (London, 1815), p. 248; Dekesel, M114; Lipsius, p. 242. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing