Lot 08058

HISTOIRE DE POLYBE nouvellement traduite du grec par Dom VINCENT THUILLIER avec un commentaire ou un corps de science militaire, enrichi de notes critiques et historique […] Par M. De FOLARD, à Paris, chez P. Gandouin – J. M. Gandouin – P. F. Giffart, N. P. Armand, 1728-1730. Original Edition, 4 volumes (out of 6), in large 8vo, Tome III: xlii,[6],folded map of Graecia Propria,434,[2] / Tome IV: c,558,[2] / Tome V: xxxviii,508,[2] / Tome VI: xlviii,folded map of Regiones Italiae,482,[2]. With numerous (around 50) engravings out of text (most of them folded), engraved title vignettes. The text (in 2 columns) is adorned with typographic headpieces, dropcaps and tailpieces.

Rare first edition in French language. The Knight M. De Folard (1669-1752) is a strategist engineer who used the Polybius treatise of war tactics to expose his own theories and military practices. Frédric II boast his “war manoeuvres (…) the wise criticism he uses on the conduct of several French generals, some tactical rules, examples of unique and ingenious defences.” (Brunet, IV, 791; Michaud, XV, 144). With this work, Polybius, wanted to explain the rise of Rome from the beginning of the Second Punic War to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth in the context of the history of the Hellenistic world. The Histories of Polybius had the ambition to tell how and by what mode of government almost all the inhabited world, conquered in less than 53 years, came under a single authority, that of Rome. He is looking for the key to Roman superiority and he is trying to understand how and thanks to what form of government the Roman State succeeded in dominating the whole earth in such a short time, and what is the secret of this superiority. He draws a parallel with the Persians, the Spartans, the Lacedaemonians, the Macedonians and notes that none of these peoples achieved such domination.

Contemporary full vellum binding, spines with five raised bands, richly flowered caissons, solid, some wear of time; rubbed edges, blunt corners, peeling on both plates with some losses of leather, loose headdresses. Title and volume number struck gold on full leather burgundy labels. Some waterstains and worm marks on boards. Marbled end papers and edges. Clean and sound inside, fresh illustrations. Good and Rare copy.