Small 8vo. Frontispiece, (X),324 p. Vellum 16.5 cm (Ref: Hoffmann 3,428; Schweiger 1,298; Moss 2,609; Ebert 21521; Graesse 6/1,447; cf. Neue Pauly Suppl. 2, p. 554 for the edition of 1692) (Details: 5 thongs laced through the joints.The frontispiece depicts the tragic poet, in the background a scene on a stage. Title in red and black. Prose translation of the Oedipus Rex and the Electra. At the end of each play ca. 60 pages filled with 'remarques') (Condition: Small inkstain on the frontcover) (Note: The French scholar André Dacier, 1651-1722, was the first Frenchman to translate a Greek tragedy in 120 years! The latest translated tragedy dates from 1573, an 'Antigone' translation of J.-A. de Baif. During this period the Roman author Seneca was the only tragedian in the spotlight. At the end of the 17th century arose a new demand among men of letters for new translations of almost forgotten classical playwrights. The Parisian publisher Barbin brought in 1692 a French translation of the Poetics of Aristotle by André Dacier on the market, an obscure and difficult treatise on the Art of Poetry, the first philosophical treatise that focuses on literary theory, especially of tragedy, and that has exerted a tremendous and lasting influence on western literature. In the same year Barbin and Dacier published a French translation of two plays of Sophocles, the Oedipus Rex and the Electra, as a kind of companion volume to this Poetics translation. This Dacier makes clear right at the beginning of the preface: 'Aprés avoir expliqué la Poëtique d'Aristote, j'ai cru qu'il 'etoit necessaire de donner une traduction de quelques Tragedies des Grecs, afin qu'on pût voir en même tems la régle & l'exemple'. (leaf *2 recto)' The Oedipus Rex and the Electra are perfect works of art (rien de plus parfait) for the understanding of Aristotle's treatise. The translation of Sophocles's plays was published anonymously as: 'L'Oedipe et l'Electre de Sophocle. Tragédies Grecques. Traduites en Franc¸ois avec des remarques'. Our edition of 1693 is a reissue of this edition, with a slightly different title, now with the name of the translator, but remarkably enough omitting the names of the two plays presented. Most reference works only mention the 1692 edition) (Collation: pi1 (frontispiece), *6 (minus leaf *6); A-N12, O6) (Photographs on request)