This two-volume set of books is titled "The Maid of Orleans, Or La Pucelle Of Voltaire", translated into English verse, with Notes, Explanatory, Critical, Historical, and Biographical, by W.H. Ireland. Volume I was printed by W. Molineux on Chancery Lane and published in London by John Miller in 1822 and the second volume was printed by Shackell and Arrowsmith at Johnson's Court, Fleet Steret for John Miller as well. ("Fleet Steret" appears on the page after the title page in Volume II and is a misspelling of "Fleet Street", and it is corrected at the end of the book after page 279.) Both are in fine bindings by Chambolle-Duru, two of the finest book binders in France in the 1800's. François-Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778) was a French writer of the Enlightenment, a philosopher, satirist, and historian, better known by his pen name Voltaire; he was famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially of the Roman Catholic Church, and of slavery. Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and separation of church and state. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets, as well as plays, poems, essays, and scientific expositions, and he was at constant risk from the strict censorship laws of the Catholic French monarchy; he satirized intolerance and religious dogma, as well as the French institutions of his day, and that was part of his importance as a writer. Voltaire started writing The Maid of Orleans (La Pucelle) around 1730, it was first published circa 1755; Voltaire denied being the author, and in 1762 he finally published an edition of the text under his own name. The books are a mock epic poem about Joan of Arc, with verses in decasyllables - metrical lines with ten syllables - the first authorized edition in 1762 had twenty cantos, but later editions contained twenty-one. The books have five raised bands, six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt lettering, gilt tooling, and "London 1822" on the spine, double gilt-fillet borders on full crushed green morocco, wide gilt dentelles with marbled endpapers and "Chambolle-Duru" in small gilt letters at the bottom of the front paste-down. Volume I has a frontis portrait of Voltaire, another engraving of a scene from the French Revolution, the title page, an oval portrait of Joan of Arc, a two-page address to the National Institute France by W. H. Ireland, an Advertisement for the book (a2 - xviii), a fourteen-page Preface, an Historical Problem about Joan of Arc - the execution of "Jean D'Arc" - that runs from c2 - lvi and includes a portrait of Charles the VII, King of France, as well as a full-page portrait of La Pucelle D'Orleans (the Maid of France), then an Epistolary Preface (b2 - d5, or iii through xxxvii) by W H. Ireland, a three-page letter from Voltaire to the French Academy and a two-page response by the Academy, another three pages of a letter by Voltaire and the Academy's response, three pages for a Table of Contents in Volume I, which has ten Cantos and Notes for each canto (I - X), for a total of 288 pages of text in the first volume. Volume II has the half-title, an oval portrait of Voltaire, followed by a full-page portrait of Joan of Arc from an engraving by Rembrandt at the L'Oeuvre, the title page, which says the book was printed for John Miller and W. Wright and printed by Shackell and Arrowsmith at Johnson's Court on Fleet Steret (this is the misspelling described above and corrected after the Notes at the rear of Volume II), then three pages for a Table of Contents, with the rest of the twenty one Cantos and Notes, for a total of 279 pages of text in Volume II. The two books might be extra illustrated, but we're not sure. Volume I says "Extra Illustrated" and "… rare portraits" in pencil on the first blank flyleaf, and Volume I has a total of 44 full-sized engravings and 11 smaller ones, including one oval portrait, while Volume II has 43 full-sized engravings and 13 smaller ones, including one oval portrait, and we found one set of books from 1822 that had 59 full-page plates in each volume, nine of which were duplicates in each book, but those were bound by Matthews and not Chambolle-Duru. Chambolle-Duru of Paris was the 19th-century binding firm founded by René Victor Chambolle (1834-1898) and Hippolyte Duru in 1861. Duru left the partnership in 1863, (he died in 1884), but Chambolle continued to produce bindings under the name "Chambolle-Duru". After his death, Chambolle's son René (1873-1915) took over the firm. The two books are measure 9 1/8 x 6 1/4 in. wide apiece and are in very good condition. The bindings are tight, with clean pages and text, there are light brown spots on a couple of engravings, a light gray shadow on the edges of some of the engravings, but those seem to form perfect rectangles and were probably put there by the printers, there's light offset on a couple of pages, small nicks on the edges of a couple of pages, light rubbing at the heel and crown and along the edges of the spines, and otherwise a very attractive set of this rare title by Voltaire. We found only one copy for 1796, another from 1822 that was not bound by Chambolle-Duru, and the other titles that were bound by Chambolle-Duru go for 350 € to 3500 €. #110 #1636