Sayce & Maskell 25. Second issue of the second folio edition: it is in fact this second issue which most completely represents the diligent efforts of Montaigne’s adopted daughter, Mlle de Gournay, to arrive at a definitive text. Despite some modernisation she returns to a pure text, incorporating the corrections from her annotated copy of the 1595 edition. Between the first and second issues further corrections have been made in the press, and there are, in this copy as in not all others, 19 AUTOGRAPH corrections, mostly in her hand: these are in the first quarter of the book, supplemented by printed errata for the rest.
The edition is interesting in other ways. It is dedicated to Cardinal Richelieu, not long after the founding of the Académie Française. The provision of translations of the Latin quotations reflects the drift to French in the 17th century.
[It may be noticed that leaf ¶1 is apparently lacking: this has been superseded in a resetting of prelims between issues.]