63. FOLARD (Jean-Charles, chevalier de). Histoire de Polybe. - Lot 63

63. FOLARD (Jean-Charles, chevalier de). Histoire de Polybe. Paris, P. Gandouin, J.-M. Gandouin, P.-F. Giffart, N.-P. Armand, 1727-1730 & Amsterdam, Z. Chatelain, 1753 (for the supplement). ?7 vol. in-4, [3] p., lxxx, 286 p. ; xlii, 510 p. ; xlii, [5] f., 434 p. ; xlviii, 482 p., [1] f. (errata) ; xxxviii, 508 p. ; c, 558 p., [1] (priv.) ; [4] f., xii, 273 p., [6] f. (manuscript), marbled fawn basane, spine with ornate nerves. First edition of Vincent Thuillier's translation, with commentary by Chevalier de Folard highlighting the strategic and military lessons to be drawn from the historical events described by Polybius. The text is illustrated with a portrait of Claude Le Blanc, Minister of War to whom the work is dedicated, a number of vignettes and engravings in the text and 130 plates outside the text, most of them double-page or folded. A complete copy of the seventh supplement volume, published later and often missing. At the end of the last volume, 12 handwritten pages have been added to reproduce extracts. Provenance: Marquis François-César Le Tellier de Courtanvaux (1718-1780), who left his coat-of-arms stamp on the title page and in the margins of several leaves. A close advisor to King Louis XV and maréchal de camp in 1743, he took part in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Bindings rubbed with small leather chips, headpieces worn, accident to one headpiece, corners dull, some foxing, other defects minor, overall average condition. (Graesse, V, 396).