2 volumes, 8vo (220 x 140 mm). Engraved throughout, the text embellished in a Rococo style with head-pieces, tail-pieces, initials, vignettes, and large illustrations (including 10 full-page); with the list of subscribers. IN FINE CONTEMPORARY FRENCH MOROCCO gilt, smooth spines elaborately gilt, green morocco lettering-pieces gilt, turn-ins gilt, edges gilt. Provenance: Unidentified Maltese Cross morocco book label on pastedown of vol. I.

FIRST EDITION, A LARGE-PAPER COPY. Second issue, with "Potest" on p.108 of vol. II. This edition was popular in France for “its vignettes [making] it one of the few English books that can be compared with French work of the time for delicacy and finish" (David Bland, A History of Book Illustration, 216). According to Ray, the book "Marks a high point of Augustan taste" adding that "Pine's complete command of his craft makes this the most elegant" of 18th-century English books. Brunet III:320; Cohen-de Ricci 497. A FINE COPY.