MARY HEBER’S COPY: Les Chef-D'Oeuvres De Corneille. Savoir, Le Cid, Horace, Cinna, Polyeucte, Pompee, Rodogune avec Le Jugement des Savans a la Suite de Chaque Piece.

An attractively provenanced Oxford printing of the 'Nouvelle Edition' of the major works of the sixteenth-century French tragedian Pierre Corneille, once part of the Sitwell family library at Weston Hall and with an earlier ownership inscription by the artist Mary Heber (1787 -1846) half-sister of the great book collector, Richard Heber.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Contemporary calf boards in good + condition showing moderate surface abrasion. Lacking label to six panelled spine. Corners, edges and spine tip and tail show modest wear. Binding square and firm. Text block sound, clean and crisp throughout. Endpapers clean. ‘Mary Heber’ written in a contemporary hand to front pastedown. Title page marks place of publication with an Oxford engraving. 414 pp. collated and complete. A very pleasing copy with attractive provenance.

Mary Heber (1787–1846) of Hodnet Hall in Shropshire was from an illustrious and learned family, the daughter of the wealthy cleric and landowner Rev. Reginald Heber (d.1804), fellow and tutor of Brasenose College, Oxford. Her brother was the celebrated English bishop, traveller, man of letters and hymn-writer, Reginald Heber (1783–1826), who became Bishop of Calcutta; and her half brother, Richard Heber (1773–1833), was a book-collector, who amassed a superb library estimated at nearly 150,000 volumes.