MONICART (Jean-Baptiste de). Versailles immortalized by the - Lot 292

MONICART (Jean-Baptiste de). Versailles immortalized by the talking wonders... which are in the castles of Versailles, Trianon, the menagerie & Marly. Paris, E. Ganneau et Jacques Quillau, 1720. 2 volumes in-4, full contemporary brown basane, ornate ribbed spine. (2) ff., XVIII, (4) ff., 430 pp., (1) f.; (8) ff., 456 pp. Hinges partially split, wear, rubbing, corners worn, defects to headpieces, title page of vol. I partially detached and worn, title pages cut at upper right-hand corner, two plates torn but not missing. Copy decorated with 2 allegorical frontispieces, 2 portraits of Louis XV as a child and of the Regent Philippe d'Orléans (as headbands) and 93 OUT OF TEXT PLATES of views, statues and paintings, some folding, and 1 folded map of Versailles. First edition of this work written in verse to the glory of Versailles. The author had originally planned 9 volumes. Involved in Law's bankruptcy, he died in the Bastille before he could complete his project. Only two volumes were published.