Three series of 12 v. each.
Each volume contains an engraved frontispiece plate and added engraved t.p., the latter identifying Aimé Payen as the publisher.
Both engraved and letterpress t.p.'s give the title of the set and the series and volume number, with no separate titles provided for the individual volumes.
Translations from ancient and modern literature, with biographical and critical notices including many extracts from La Harpe's Cours de littérature; first and second series devoted to Greek and Latin literature; the third to Italian, English, French, and other modern writers.
Evidently a copy of a remaindered issue of a publication originally issued in 1818-1821 by Parisian publisher Valentin Lefuel, whose name remains on the letterpress titles of the Payen edition along with the original dates of publication. Comparison with copies of the set issued by Lefuel reveal that the original Lefuel imprint on the engraved t.p.'s was apparently burnished out and replaced by the Payen imprint with the 1822 publication date.
"De l'Imprimerie de P. Didot l'Ainé"--verso of half-titles.