[Good provenance. Dictionary] Dictionaire historique et critique de Mr. Pierre Bayle

Cinquième édition, revue, corrigée, et augmentée. Avec la vie de l'Auteur, par Mr. Des Maizeaux. Amsterdam, etc., Brunel etc., 1740, 4 vols., all vols. w. identical engraved title vignette by P. Tanjé after A. van der Werff, very finely unif. bound in contemp. mottled calf, richly gilt spine w. 2 contrast. mor. letterpieces, folio.

Occas. sl. foxed; vol. 1 with old annotations on free blanks and back cover sunned at top (also the case with front cover of vol. 4); all vols. offsetting from turn-ins. Very desirable set, all vols. with heraldic bookplate of Monsieur Munter and small bookplate of Lynden van Hemmen on upper pastedowns. Monsieur Munter is N.N. Munter of Amsterdam, 18th century. Lynden van Hemmen is probably Frans Godert baron van Lynden van Hemmen (1761-1845), whose beautiful collection was sold at auction in 1846. Confer Printing and the Mind of Man, 155: "For over half a century (...) Bayle's 'Dictionaire' dominated enlightened thinking in every part of Europe." Van Eeghen, De Amsterdamsche Boekhandel, V, 138. The fifth edition (first: 1697) of Bayle's dictionary, a magnificent joint project of many publishers from Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague and Utrecht, printed in 3288 copies at the cost of 46.000 guilders. Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) was a sharp critic of former dictionaries such as the one by L. Moréri, 1674. His work was only surpassed when the dictionary of Diderot and d'Alembert (who owed a lot to Bayle) appeared.