[RESTIF DE LA BRETONNE (Nicolas-Edme). Les Nuits de Paris, ou le Spectateur nocturne. London and Paris, s.n., 1788-1794. 16 volumes in-8, half fawn morocco, smooth spine decorated, untrimmed (Binding of the end of the 19th century). First edition of this fascinating account of nightlife in Paris during the Ancien Régime and then the Revolution. Lucidly, Restif described his work as follows: "Les Nuits de Paris is one of those major productions, one of those vast compositions intended to depict the mores of a nation: what makes this work important for posterity is the truth of the facts. I spent twenty years collecting them: every morning I wrote down what I had seen the day before... As for the substance of the work, it offers a picture of what went on at night in Paris under the Ancien Régime" (Mes ouvrages, p. 164). The work is decorated with 16 (of 18) very pretty engraved figures attributed to Binet, several of which depict the author in his costume of Spectateur nocturne. An exceptional copy complete with all sixteen parts, including the rarer fifteenth, published in 1790 under the title : La Semaine nocturne..., and especially the sixteenth part, published in 1794, which is "almost impossible to find" according to Cohen, the copies having been systematically destroyed. A pleasant copy bound in sixteen volumes. The figures of volumes XV (Louis XVI) and XVI (Charlotte Corday) are missing; the second figure of volume VIII (Billard des gueux) is bound in volume X. Missing at the bottom of the title of volume I, deleting some characters on the verso, and on one leaf of volume XV (pp. 39-40); some worm work occasionally affecting the text (t. IX, pp. 2147-2160, in particular); tear to the engraving of t. VI. Spine slightly faded, some foxing and minor interior defects, small marginal tears and tears to a few leaves. Monselet, n°31 - Rives Child, XX[X]IV-1, pp. 303-307 - Lacroix, XXXIV-1, pp. 258-300 - Cohen, 882 - Martin-Mylne-Frautschi, 88-100.