Two 8vo volumes in contemporary light brown half calf bindings with spines gilt flowered and boards marbled. Red edges. Boards mildly rubbed with a few small wormholes to extremities. Firm and tight bindings. Titlepage in the first part mildly foxed and a small neat repair in lower corner of p. 51/52 in the first volume without loss. Vol. I; (IV), 464 p. , (II) last blank. Vol. II; (IV) 303 p., (III) + (II), 344 p. Two pages in the beginning are inverted, nothing is missing.
Gudin de la Bretellerie, who was a friend of Voltaire, wrote a lot of plays without great success. When he wrote this historical work he was rewarded by the French Academy. The book was published earlier than foreseen due to the historical events in France. It's a kind of comparative study over the situation in France, the old Rome and England.