38 - SAINTE-FOIX, Ph.-A. de, Chevalier d'ARCQ.

SAINTE-FOIX, Ph.-A. de, Chevalier d'ARCQ. A General History of Wars, Divided into Three Periods Paris: Royal Printing Office, 1756–1758. 2 volumes in-4, frontispiece, XII-CLXXVI-372 pp., 1 pl. and VIII-614 pp. Contemporary fawn-colored speckled sheepskin, ribbed spine, fawn-colored title label with green volume number, gilt title, gilded floral medallions, marbled paper endpapers, lemon-colored edges (spine and a small portion of the covers slightly faded, caps and corners rubbed, edges rubbed, a few scattered spots of discoloration). A copy belonging to a Marshal of the Empire. A major historical and military synthesis devoted to the art of war and the great conflicts of antiquity. The only edition of which only two volumes were published. Sainte-Foix’s rarest work. Complete with the beautiful allegorical frontispiece, engraved in black on copper by Chenu, after a drawing by Eisen, dated 1754. The first volume opens with the frontispiece, followed by a substantial critical preliminary discourse and the introduction (176 pp.), and continues with the History of Armenia (Greater and Lesser Armenia) and the History of Cappadocia, accompanied by a fold-out plate depicting Noah’s family tree. The second volume covers Pontus, Paphlagonia, Heraclea Pontica, Bithynia, Pergamon, Phrygia, and Lydia. A fine copy with generous margins. Provenance: Library of Imperial Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (1762–1833), who participated in the great Napoleonic campaigns (19th-century engraved ex libris on the inside covers of both volumes). MILITARIA. SMALL ASIA. Cohen, I, 87. Quérard, I, 84.