Encyclopédie Méthodique. Beaux-Arts. Tome I-II. [AND] Recueil de planches du Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts, faisant partie de l’Encyclopédie méthodique par ordre de matières. [The complete text and atlas].

Paris, Panckoucke, 1788-1805. Three volumes in three. 4to (25.8 x 19.5 cm [text]; 29.5 x 22.4 cm [atlas]]). Two half-titles to the Encyclopédie, and three title pages. 1517 pp. [I: xxiv, viii, 662; II: 814; Atlas: 7, 2]; one folded table; 115 engraved plates [numbered 1; 1-2; 1-2; 1-38; 1-10; 1-8, 1bis; 1-3; 1-2; 1-2; 1-2; 1; 1-2; 1; 1-6; 1; 1-2; 1-14, 8bis; 1-5; 1-2; 1-3; 1-5; 1]. Contemporary full mottled calf. Spines rich gilt with pictorial, "instruments" vignettes, gilt floral bands and red morocco label with gilt title, marbled endpapers, red edges (text volumes); near contemporary black half calf over marbled boards. Spine with gilt ornamental bands, blind-tooled vignettes and gilt title. Marbled endpapers, speckled edges (atlas) = A rare bound part, complete with ALL plates (a very rare condition), of the Ultimate Encyclopaedia and the largest of all great Encyclopaedias and the most important work published during the French Enlightement. This section edited by the French writer and editor Pierre-Charles Levesque (1736-1813). It deals with fine arts and contains, e.g., an annotated list of "modern" painters. The vignettes on the text volumes show instruments related to painting and sculpturing. The plate to sculpture en bois (woodcuts) is numbered 1 in the index, however, on the plate it is numbered 6, erroneously included in the numbering of the preceding travail du marbre (marble sculpting) plates. Boards worn at edges; lower quarter of atlas spine cover perished; singular worm hole in the lower margin of the first lgatherings of the first text volume, not affecting any text; plate 22 detached, but present (not a replacement); otherwise, a very good, clean set. Schmitt, S. (2018) Inventaire des livraisons, des auteurs et du contenu de l’Encyclopédie méthodique (1782-1832).