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174 - [RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas-Edme). Les Nuits de Paris, o…
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Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
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Description
[RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas-Edme). Les Nuits de Paris, ou le Spectateur-Nocturne. London ; Paris, chés les Libraires nommés en tête du Catalogue [puis] Guillot, 1788-1790. 15 parts in 8 volumes in-12, fawn half-basin with green vellum corners, smooth spine decorated, yellow speckled edges (Binding circa 1800). First edition of this fascinating account of nightlife in Paris during the Ancien Régime and the Revolution. The illustration consists of 17 very handsome out-of-text figures attributed to Louis Binet (1744-1800), most probably engraved by Louis-Sébastien Berthet, in which the author is often depicted in his costume of Night Spectator. Lucidly, Restif described his work as follows: "Les Nuits de Paris is one of those major productions, one of those vast compositions intended to depict the mores of a nation: which makes this work important for posterity, because of the truth of the facts. I spent twenty years collecting them: every morning I wrote down what I had seen the day before... As for the substance of the work, it offers a picture of what went on at night in Paris under the ancien régime" (Mes ouvrages, p. 164). A complete copy of the fifteenth part, published in 1790 under the title : La Semaine nocturne. The sixteenth part, published in 1794 and "almost impossible to find" according to Cohen, is missing as it almost always is. Monselet, n°31 - Rives Child, XX[X]IV-1, pp. 303-307 - Lacroix, XXXIV-1, pp. 258-300 - Cohen, 882 - Martin-Mylne-Frautschi, 88-100.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
Auction location
Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
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