First edition of Hubert's prose translation of Gessner's celebrated poem Der Tod Abels, which was first published in German in 1758. Salomon Gessner (1730-1788), known throughout Europe for literary works of pastoral themes and his rococo style, was a bookseller's son, and started his career as an apprentice to the bookseller Spener in Berlin. Giving up this employment, he lived for a time by painting and engraving. In 1750, he settled in Zurich, continuing to live by painting, including painting on porcelain. Later he was also a town councillor and a forestry superintendent, who also ran an important publishing house, from which he published his books with his own excellent etchings. He began to write idylls in poetic prose, beginning with Daphnis (1754) and his Idyllen (1756-72) achieved nation-wide success. In Der Tod Abels (1758), he attempted to write an epic in prose in five "chants", quickly becoming his most renowned work, and making him the most successful and typical representative of a literary rococo movement. In his idylls, Gessner is indebted to Theocritus and Virgil, creating an idealized, orderly, almost horticultural state of nature.
The beautiful stipple engraved plates are after the drawings by Nicolas Monsiau. Nicolas-André Monsiau (1754-1837) was a Parisian who attained some reputation as a painter of both classical and modern subjects. He was elected to the Academy in 1789. These scenes were engraved by Colibert, Casenave, and Clément, and printed in colour in one run through the press. The six plates in this copy are in their first state, before numbers; two have the artist's and engraver's name; 3 have only the engraver's name.
With a small paper (library) labels on the front board ("B 8" and "6") and foot of the spine ("207"). Further with an inscription on recto of the first blank flyleaf in French, and a small oval blue stamp of the library of the St. Elisabeth convent in Heythuysen, Limburg, The Netherlands on the title-page and p. 91. The binding shows some scratches on the boards, the spine is worn, but all without affecting the integrity of the binding. Some occasional minor water staining in the top margin, otherwise in good condition. A large-paper copy of a rare colour-printed plates-book. Brunet II, 1568; Burch, p. 93; Cohen-de Ricci, col. 436; Fürstenberg 122, and 205; Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, pp. 151-2; Sander 780.