206 - BALZAC (Bernard-François). Memoirs on Several Major Matters of Public Utility. Tours: Mame, 1809. 3 essays in continuous pagination in one 8vo volume of [2] leaves, 95 pp. Contemporary binding in grained sheepskin, double gilt fillet framing the covers, smooth decorated spine, gilt edges.

BALZAC (Bernard-François). Memoirs on Several Major Matters of Public Utility. Tours: Mame, 1809. 3 essays in continuous pagination in one 8vo volume of [2] leaves, 95 pp. Contemporary binding in grained sheepskin, double gilt fillet framing the covers, smooth decorated spine, gilt edges. First collected edition of these three essays written between 1807 and 1809 by B.-F. Balzac, father of Honoré de Balzac: - Essay on Two Major Obligations to Be Fulfilled by the French. Autograph signature of Bernard-François Balzac at the end of the essay. - Memoir on the Scandalous Disorder Caused by Young Women Deceived and Abandoned in Utter Destitution; and on the Means of Utilizing a Segment of the Population Lost to the State and Highly Detrimental to Social Order. - Memoir on the means of preventing theft and murder, and of bringing those who commit such crimes back into the workforce, and on the means of simplifying the judicial system. First collected edition of these three essays written by Balzac’s father while he was deputy mayor and administrator of the hospital in Tours, The 1950 catalog of the Balzac exhibition at the National Library notes that these pamphlets are “extremely rare.” Copy printed on heavy, large-format vellum paper. Autograph signature of Bernard-François Balzac at the end of the first essay. Binding slightly rubbed, three corners worn. Gold lettering on the spine tarnished. Experts: Loup Axmann and Jean-Luc Boisseau