LABORDE (Alexandre de). Les Monumens de la France classés chronologiquement et considérés sous le rapport des faits historiques et de l'étude des arts. Paris : de l'imprimerie de P. Didot l'aîné, 1816 (tome 1) ; Paris : imprimerie et fonderie de Jules Didot l'aîné, 1836 (tome 2). - 2 large folio volumes, 595 x 430: frontispiece, (2 ff.), iv, 94 pp., 116 plates; (3 ff.), 52 pp., 142 plates. Half blond calf, smooth spine decorated, untrimmed (modern binding). First edition of this major work dedicated to the ancient monuments of France, published by Count Alexandre de Laborde (1773-1842), politician, writer and historian, member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres and the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. The first volume explores mainly Celtic and Roman monuments in France, while the second describes civil and religious buildings from the Byzantine and Romanesque periods to the Renaissance. This richly illustrated edition includes two large title vignettes, including the one in the first volume, engraved and drawn by Laguiche (17..-1855), depicting several antique medals. It also includes a frontispiece designed by Jean-Lubin Vauzelle (1776-1837), and engraved by Beaujean, as well as 258 plates engraved on copper from life drawings by Vauzelle, Jacques-Louis Bance (1761-1847), Constant Bourgeois (1767-1841) - a pupil of Jacques-Louis David - Nicolas Marie Joseph Chapuy (1790-1858), and other artists. The tables list 259 plates, but the 184th (Château de Josselin) is actually included on plate 180. These engravings, which bring together hundreds of views, are a precious testimony to the state of monuments in the first decades of the 19th century, at a time when many have since disappeared or been profoundly transformed. Copy with full margins, in modern binding, with original boards preserved. Some foxing, affecting mainly the text leaves.