Charlotte Lennox translation, 5 vols., 1757

[Charlotte LENNOX (c.1730-1804, translator)]. - [Pierre Mathurin de L’ÉCLUSE des Loges (1716-approx. 1783)]. Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, Prime Minister to Henry the Great … Translated from the French, by the Author of the Female Quixote. To which is added, the Tryal of Ravaillac for the Murder of Henry the Great. In five volumes. London: Printed for A. Millar, R. and J. Dodsley, and W. Shropshire, 1757. 5 volumes, octavo (8 ¼ x 5 inches; 209 x 127mm). Contemporary calf (rebacked in the late 19th-century, extremities rubbed). Provenance: Augustus Arthur Vansittart (1824-1882, armorial bookplate).

Second (first octavo) edition of bluestocking Charlotte Lennox’s translation: “Though my sex and manner of life make me a stranger of public affairs; I yet discover of myself, that the History I have translated is not only interesting but important” (preface). A 3-volume 4to edition had been published in 1756. Cf. A.T. Hazen. Samuel Johnson’s prefaces & dedications (New Haven: 1937) pp. 110-116 (“The dedication is signed by the translator, Charlotte Lennox, but it is said to have been in fact written by Samuel Johnson.” [ESTC]); ESTC T143316.