(London: Printed for W. Innys in Pater-noster-Row; J. and P. Knapton in Ludgate-street; and R. Manby and H. S. Cox on Ludgate-Hill, 1750).

FIRST EDITION OF THIS SUMPTUOUS WORK ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF FRANCE. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH FINE COPPERPLATES THROUGHOUT. With important illustrations depicting the exploits of William the Conquerer and Harold. The first English edition of this monumental work on the history of France from its origins to the reign of Henri IV. Rich in details concerning royal coronations, entries, and funerals, including a number of plates illustrating the Bayeux Tapestry.
Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, (1655 – 1741) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He was an astute scholar who founded the discipline of palaeography, as well as being an editor of works of the Fathers of the Church. He is regarded as one of the founders of the modern discipline of archaeology.
Montfaucon served in the French army as a volunteer and participated in the Franco-Dutch War of 1673. He was a captain of grenadiers and made two campaigns under the command of Marshall Turenne, participated in the Battle of Herbsthausen. Montfaucon published 15 volumes of L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures between 1719 and 1724. An English translation of this work was published in 1721–25 under the title Antiquity Explained and Represented in Sculptures. The work contained copperplate folio engravings of classical antiquities. It included a depiction of the "Barberini Vase", more commonly known as the "Portland Vase". This book is published in English under the title Antiquities. The materials used in this work were taken from the manuscripts deposited in French libraries. It contains many illustrative facsimiles,
Montfaucon laid the foundation for the study of Greek manuscripts. Scrivener stated that his work still maintains a high authority, even "after more recent discoveries", especially of papyri in Egypt. Modern scholars agree that he effectively created a new discipline, palaeography, and brought it to an advanced state of sophistication.
Montfaucon was largely responsible for bringing the Bayeux Tapestry to public attention. In 1724, the scholar Antoine Lancelot discovered drawings of a section of the tapestry (about 30 feet of the Tapestry's 231 feet) among papers of Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, a Norman administrator. (These drawings of the tapestry's images "classicized" the somewhat crude Anglo-Norman originals by adding shadows and dimensionality to the figures.) Lancelot, unsure of what medium the drawings depicted, suggested that they might be a tomb relief, stained glass, a fresco, or even a tapestry. When Lancelot presented Foucault's drawings in 1724 to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, they attracted the attention of Montfaucon, who subsequently tracked down the textile in the drawings with help from his Benedictine colleagues in Normandy. This is often regarded as the modern "discovery" of the Bayeux Tapestry, which had been displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral, perhaps for centuries, without attracting outside attention. Montfaucon published the Foucault drawings in the first volume his Les Monumens de la Monarchie Françoise. In anticipation of volume 2 of Les Monumens, Montfaucon engaged the artist Antoine Benoit, and sent him to Bayeux to copy the Tapestry in its entirety and in a manner more faithful to its style. Modern scholars are indebted to him for his process of examining many accounts of the Norman Conquest in interpreting the Tapestry. wiki. Item #34673

2 volumes. First Edition. Profusely illustrated with upwards of 300 large folio copperplates throughout the two volumes, many double page. A veritable treasure of early French originals housed in ancient buildings, paintings, carvings, drawings, engravings et al., many being double page, others corresponding to one another, continuations from one plate to the next, especially the Suite of Harold, the Suite of William the Conquerer. Large Folio, (16" x 10.25"), bound in contemporary polished calf, the covers with triple fillet rules in blind surrounding an inner framework of two roll-tooled decorations in blind, the spines with raised bands over cords, the compartments decorated with panels triple gilt fillet ruled enclosing gilt corner tools and central fleurs-de-lys gilt, marbled endleaves and edges. [2], ii, 82 plus 154 plates; 74 plus 150 plates pp. A crisp an clean and beautifully preserved copy internally, the bindings now with some light cracking at the hinges, some old repairs to the heads and tails of the spine panels, the cracking to the Vol. I hinges is more than that of Vol. II, the cords and pastedowns still holding but tender.