Michel de MONTAIGNE. Essais... Cinquiesme edition, augmentée d'un troisiesme livre : et de six cens additions aux deux premiers. In-4, brown calf, spine with 5 raised bands, spotted edges, lower edge with the mention montaigne in ink (17th century binding). Brunet, III-1835 // Cioranescu, 15282 // De Backer, 451 // Le Petit, 102 // Sayce, 4 // Tchemerzine-Scheler, IV-873. (4f.)-504f. (incorrectly numbered 496) / ã4, A-Z4, Aa-Zz4, AAa-ZZz4, AAAa-ZZZz4, AAAAa-ZZZZz4, AAAAAa-LLLLLLl4 / 186 x 247 mm. Fourth edition, largely original, of the Essays, the first to contain the third book and the last to appear during the author's lifetime. The first two books of the Essays were published in 1580 in Bordeaux by Simon Millanges, followed by two revised and expanded editions in 1582 and 1587. This edition, marked cinquiesme edition on the title, is in fact the fourth, and we know of no edition that bears a mention of the fourth edition on the title. This bibliographical anomaly can perhaps be explained, according to Le Petit, in the following way: there are a few copies that conform in every respect to the first edition of 1580 (M.D.LXXX) which bear the date 1583 marked M.D.LXXXIII. Close examination has revealed that the end of the Roman numeral III was added using printing ink and a typesetter. According to Le Petit, Simon Millanges, the publisher of the first and second editions, found unsold copies of his first edition in 1583 and tried to sell them by pretending they were a new edition. Abel L'Angelier, the publisher of the real fourth edition, is said to have been fooled by this falsified edition and to have considered his own to be a fifth edition. In this fourth, extensively revised edition, Montaigne added a third book for the first time, whose more rigorously personal, more intimate approach was to ensure, more than anything else, the continued existence of the Essais (in French in the text). This was the last edition published by Montaigne, who died in 1592. Title entirely engraved on metal, surrounded by a beautiful Renaissance frame with scrolls, putti... Copy with engraved title in second state. Small loss to upper head, binding restored, beginnings of cracks to jaws. Some wetness (Dd4 and quires ã, Ll and LLLLLl) and stains (D4, V4 and Dd3), marginal restoration to 7 leaves (TTTt3 and ZZZz1 to AAAAAa2) and small marginal loss to 2 leaves due to the original size of the leaves.