Rabelais (François) The Works [-Second Book of the Works], translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart, second edition, engraved portrait frontispiece (trimmed at fore-edge touching image), errata leaf, 1694; The Third Book of the Works..., translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart, first edition,1693; Pantagruel's Voyage to the Oracle of the Bottle. Being the Fourth and Fifth Books of the Works..., translated by P.A.Motteux, 2 parts in 1, first edition, woodcut illustration to K4 of second part, a few ink stains, 1694, together 5 parts in 3 vol., some spotting and light browning, a few tears, mainly marginal, or tiny holes within text, bookplate of Ashton-Gwatkin Barton Library Pagham, uniform near contemporary calf, rebacked, spines with morocco labels, covers worn in places, [ESTC R29255, R26911, R2564; Pforzheimer 815-816; Wing R109, R110, R107], printed for Richard Baldwin, 12mo (3)

⁂ A complete set of the translations of Rabelais' works. The first item consists of books 1 and 2, covering Gargantua and Pantagruel, and was first published in 1653. These and Urquhart's previously unpublished Third Book were issued to accompany Motteux's translation of the Fourth & Fifth Books in 1693-94. Richard Baldwin was a prominent and politically active printer in late 17th-century London. Often targeted by the authorities for publishing controversial or politically sensitive material, his role in producing Rabelais’s works—a writer renowned for his own mocking critiques of authority—was especially apt.