J.-H. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Études de la nature.

Troisième édition, revue, corrigée & augmentée. Brussels, B. le Francq, 1788-1789, 5 volumes, with engraved frontispiece and 4 folding plates, contemporary uniform half leather, gilt backs with raised bands with 2 contrasting morocco title shields.

Slightly tanned, tops of spines with light damage. A lovely set in a relatively early and rare, Belgian edition. Jacques Bernardin Henri de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814) was a French engineer, world traveller, writer, botanist, vegetarian and professor of moral philosophy. Bernardin was the most important representative of Rousseau's ideas from the Enlightenment; with his "Etudes de la Nature" he became an influence on the romantic writers of the 19th century.