1743 Edition of Montaigne's Essays, A Rare Enlightenment-era Copy of One of the Period’s Most Influential Works

MONTAIGNE, Michel de. Essays In Three Books. With Notes and Quotations. And an Account of the Author's Life. With a Short Character of the Author and Translator, by the Late Marquiss of Hallifax. London: Barker, Straham, Ballard, etal., 1743. Volume I. Translated by Charles Cotton, Esq. 18mo, 4” x 6.5” inches.This is an early English edition with Original leather boards with raised bands to spine. 349 pages, 436 including prefaces and index. Fifth Edition. Montaigne’s most influential work and one of the foundations of Skepticism. The remarkable modernity of thought apparent in Montaigne's essays, coupled with their sustained popularity, made them arguably (truncated) the most prominent work in French philosophy until the Enlightenment. The title itself comes from the French word essais, meaning "attempts" or "tests", which shows how this new form of writing did not aim to educate or prove, but rather to explore an idea. His topics in Volume I span the entire spectrum of the profound to the trivial, from “Of Sorrow”, “That to study philosophy is to learn to die”, and “Good and Evils Depend Upon Opinion”; To “Of Sleep” “Of Smells” or “Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes”. A rare 1743 copy. Leather scuffed and hinges cracked, but boards and textblock secure; spine sturdy, though exterior chipping down to first raised band at head. Dampstain around edges of endpapers and pastedown. 1882 ownership signature on pastedown and title page. Age-related toning to pages, which are otherwise remarkably clean, with neat, bold text. Overall in good to very good condition. A rare Enlightenment-era copy of one of the period’s most influential texts. (Inventory #: 16772)