(Congreve, William) — Abbé d'Aubignac, François Hédelin

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

La Pratique du Théâtre... Paris: Antoine de Sommaville, 1657.
Ink, paper and cow

4to (8 3/4 x 6 1/2 in.; 223 x 165 mm). Title page with William Congreve signature on the upper right corner. Contemporary calf; uniformly rubbed.

Provenance

William Congreve (signature on title page) — Duke of Leeds (bookplate trimmed and signature dated 1901 on first endpaper). Sotheby's London, 27 May 2004, lot 122. acquisition: Purchased at foregoing sale though Bernard Quaritch

Literature

Hodges No. 469; STC French 180.

Catalogue Note

First edition of the classic seventeenth-century French treatise on the theatre.

William Congreve's copy.
Congreve also owned a copy of the first English translation of this work, published in 1684.
If William Congreve wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period, his career as a playwriter was brief. He published only five plays, including Love for Love in 1695.