Wailly M. de Lot n° 283

GENERAL AND PARTICULAR PRINCIPLES OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. Tenth edition, revised and considerably expanded. Published in Paris, by J. Barbou, in 1786. Covered in a full basane binding with ribbed spine and red edges. A well-preserved copy: some rubbings on the headdresses and spine. Solid hinge. Fresh inside with some light freckles. Noël-François De Wailly was a French grammarian and lexicographer born in Amiens on 31 July 1724 and died in Paris on 7 April (or 18 April) 1801. Brother of the architect Charles De Wailly (1730-1798), a pupil of Abbé Joseph Valart and Philippe de Prétot, he spent his life in Paris, where for many years he ran a school especially for foreigners who wanted to learn French. He published the Principes généraux et particuliers de la langue française (Paris, 1754, in-12, often reprinted), which revolutionized the teaching of grammar in France. The book was adopted as a textbook by the University of Paris and was commonly used throughout France, with an abridged version for primary education.