Rhétorique françoise, a l’usage des jeunes demoiselles. Avec des exemples…

12mo (165 × 88 mm), pp. xi, [1], 403, [1]. Woodcut ornament to title. Lower margin of title torn away, affecting lower part of imprint date, one blank margin (pp. 45-6) with portion missing (just touching text). Contemporary mottled sheep, gilt panelled spine, red morocco label. Slightly rubbed, two small worm/insect holes. Early inscription to front free endpaper: ‘De M^de la c[om]tesse de de Boland actuelement a Bernardine Delabre’, later inkstamps of the Furstenburg library at Donaueschingen to title and finla eaf versos, with addiitonal red pencil shelf markings to front endpaper and title. A good copy.

First published in 1745, Gaillard’s was a popular guide to rhetoric for the use of young women. This copy has an early female gift/ownership inscription. Though many of the examples in the guide are traditional examples of rhetorical excellence, the introduction provides and interesting discourse on celebrated female rhetorician, mentioning Elizabeth I of England as a supposed translator of Sophocles and Marie Stuart’s Latin oration at the French royal court.