Histoire Generale des Huns, des Turcs, des Mogols, et des Autres Tartares Occidentaux, &c. Avant et Depuis Jesus-Christ Jusqu'a Present (5 tomes)

Deguignes, Joseph de

Desaint & Saillant, 1756

4 volumes bound in 5. A handsome set.  1st edition. Quartos. Bound in contemporary mottled calf. Six spine compartments, gilt ruled. Red morocco spine labels.  All edges red, marbled end pages. Generally clean and fresh internally, a minimum of scattered spotting. Collated: cxviii, 471, [1]; 8, xcv, [1], 522; viii, 272, 292; viii, 542, [2]; vii, [1], 517, [3] pages. Volume 1 is in 2 parts. Good bindings and covers. Original boards. Each volume has been placed in a modern gray cloth clam shell case. Black spine labels with gilt lettering. Includes half-title in all 5 volumes and final blank in the last 2. 

Refs: Cordier, Sinica II, 2767 - 2768.  Lust 428. Brunet, II, 567-568. Atabey: The Ottoman World. I (1998), 535. 

Joseph de Guignes was a noted French Orientalist and Sinologist.  De Guignes originated the proposal that the Huns who attacked the Roman Empire were the same people as the Xiongnu mentioned in Chinese records. This view was popularized by his contemporary Edward Gibbon in Gibbon's work the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. 

An oversized or heavy book, which requires additional postage for international delivery outside the US.