Balzac honoré de

Politics In Select discourses of Monsieur balzac. Which he call'd his aristippus or Wise Scholar. Done into English by Basil Kennett Fellow of C.C.C. Oxford; now Chaplain in a British Factory abroad. To which are added An Advertisement of the Translation; and an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author

1709 · AQ16021 — London: Printed by J. Humfreys for J. Philips 1709. xlviii 172pp. Contemporary panelled calf contrasting red morocco lettering-piece spine richly gilt. Rubbed a trifle marked splitting to joints with but with boards remaining firmly attached. The Macclesfield Library copy with bookplate of 'South Library' Shirburn Castle to FEP and the usual blind-stamps to first three leaves recent bookplate of Robert J. Hayhurst to recto of FFEP. Text-block unpressed with some browning. The Macclesfield copy of a selected translation into English of Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac's 1597-1654 Aristippe Leiden 1657 a treatise on courts and the duties of wise governance by English antiquary and clergyman Basil Kennett 1674-1714 published whilst he served as the first Chaplain to the British trading factory at Leghorn. Kennett's translation was to prove embarrassing to his brother White Kennett 1660-1728 Bishop of Peterborough who had contributed prefatory material to this work when parts of the seventh discourse were excerpted in an 8pp satirical pamphlet The French Favourites London 1709 examining the relationship of Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill scurrilously attributed to the Bishop. ESTC T113022. First edition. 8vo. Printed by J. Humfreys, for J. Philips hardcover