ILLUSTRES (LES) modernes; ou tableau de la vie privée des principaux personages des deux sexes, qui depuis la renaissance des Lettres, ont acquis de la célébrité en Europe, tant en Politique ou dans les Armées, que dans les Arts, les Sciences & la vie contemplative.- A Paris: Chez Leroy, 1788.- 2 vols.: il.; 40 cm.- E. Original edition of a collection of 100 biographies illustrated with copperplate printed portraits of characters who stood out in the field of politics, religion, science, weapons and arts, from the Renaissance to the third quarter of the 18th century. The collation of each of the volumes is as follows: Tome premier - 104 p.: 1 frontispiece grav., 50 portraits grav.; Take second - [4], 100, [3, 1 br.] p.: 50 grav portraits. Outer margin of the title page of Volume I, carefully reconstituted; engraved allegorical frontispiece bound after p. 4, with stamp and label of Livraria d'Alcobaça. Both volumes have two stamps from Livraia de Alcobaça on the title pages (second volume with the same stamp also on the half-title). Slightly trimmed copy, with slight browning. Recent full sheepskin bindings, with patina and gold tooling in the manner of the period, smooth spines with different coloured labels and marbled paper on the endpapers. Brunet, III, 408.