Les Principes de la Morale et du Goût, en deux poèmes

Pope (Alexander, 1688–1744) Les Principes de la morale et du goût : en deux poëmes. Translated from the English by Jean‑François Du Bellay Du Resnel. Paris, Briasson, 1737, 8vo, XLIX‑243 pp. 7 ff. Full calf binding. Rare traces of foxing on the title page; the interior is fresh, without foxing. First French edition. Translated by M. Du Bellay Du Resnel, the work presents Pope's two philosophical poems on human morality and aesthetic taste. A didactic and witty work addressing reason, moral balance and aesthetic judgement. First French edition of this major collection of moral and philosophical poetry, a witness to the spread of Pope's ideas in France in the 18th century. Alexander Pope (1688–1744), a major English poet of the 18th century, famous for his philosophical poems and his Essay on Man, is renowned for combining wit, moral argument and formal mastery of verse. Jean‑François Du Bellay Du Resnel (1675–1745), a French ecclesiastic and translator, helped make English literature known in France and adapted Pope's poems into French verse, faithful to their philosophical and didactic spirit.