Maistre, Joseph Marie Comte de. Les soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, ou entretiens sur le government temporel de la provision suivis d'un traité sur les sacrifices. 2 parts in 1 volume. 2 Bl., XXVI, 456 pp., 1; 2 Bl., 474 pp., 1 Bl. 20 x 14,5 cm. Fir-green semi-leather d. Z. (lightly shabby and toasted, back cover with flaw) with gold-embossed title and gold-plated. Paris, Librairie Grècque, 1821. Vicaire V, 459. Eisler 446. Russica Cat. M 126. – First edition of the socio-critical treatise on relations at the Tsarenhof and in the Société Russe by the French statesman, writer and philosopher Joseph Marie, Comte de Maistre (1753-1821), born in Chambéry, who is considered one of the most important founders of ultramontanism and is the official representative and ambassador of the Kingdom of Sardinia to the United Kingdom. "The most cogent political theorist writing in Franch against the secularistic, anti-aristocratic and antimonarchical ideas of 1789" (ESS X, 50). – Title stamped, slightly patchy, few pencil paintings, resolutions with old Sepia entries. Interior mirror with mounted exlibris.