Description: Two volumes in one, collated 4to, 32.5 x 25.3 cm, bound in 19^th-century long-grain green shagreen, flapped portfolio with a bronze lock clasp, gilt centrepiece fleuron, gilt- and blind-tooled boards and spine, spine with false raised bands, gilt-lettered “ESSAI | SUR LA MORALE”; text printed on bluish laid paper, blue marbled pastedowns; h.t. and t.p. in both volumes present. Restoration and conservation by  Zukor art conservation in September 2022.

Title-page: LA PUCELLE | D’ORLÉANS, | POËME EN VINGT-UN CHANTS. | Par VOLTAIRE | Édition ornée de Figures gravées par les meilleurs | Artistes de Paris. | — | TOME PREMIER (TOME SECOND). | — | A PARIS, | DE L’IMPRIMERIE DE DIDOT LE JEUNE. | L’AN TROISIÈME. ||

Imprint: A PARIS, | Chez les Frères Jacquenod, rue de Condé, n^o. 15. | A LYON,  chez les mêmes. ||

Collation: Vol. 1: A-Z⁴, 2A-2H⁴ 2I²; total 126 leaves; Vol. 2: A-Z⁴, 2A⁴ 2B², 2C-D⁴, 2E³ 2F-2N⁴; total 141 leaves; first and last blank, plus 21 plates extraneous to collation, 8 in the 1^st volume (incl. frontispiece) and 13 in the 2^nd.

Pagination: Vol. 1: [1-5] 6-251 [252], total 252 pages, ils; Note: leave 2A₁ has a loss of 1/6 of the top, leave 2A² torn out completely; Vol. 2: [1-5] 6-212, ²[211] ²212 [213] 214-279 [280], duplication of numbers 211 and 212 => total 282 pages, ils. The total number of pages in the volume is 534; one page torn out (187/8 in Vol. 1)

Catalogue raisonné: Nordmann (2): № 562, p. 278; Cohen-deRicci: 1034.

According to Nordmann (Christie’s), it was an edition illustrated with 21 plates after Lebarbier, Marillier, Monnet and Monsiau produced by various engravers; in the 1840s those plates were replaced with 24 lithographs by Achille Devéria, who signed them “LONDON”. In Nordmann’s copy, there is also a set of hand-coloured lithographs. There are only 21 plates in our copy, lacking three as per the source.

Contributors :

François Marie Arouet de Voltaire (French, 1694 – 1778) – author.

Achille Devéria (French, 1800 – 1857) – artist.

Pierre-Nicolas-Firmin Didot [Didot le Jeune] (French, 1769 – 1836) – publisher.