History, Religion
An interesting genealogical study conducted into the origins of the Lusignans
An interesting genealogical study conducted into the origins of the Lusignans.
A precious copy bound with the arms and cipher of Henri-Jacques-Nompar de Caumont.
Paris, 1587.
LUSIGNAN DE CYPRE, le R.P. Estienne de. Les généalogies de soixante et sept très nobles et très illustres maisons, partie de France, partie étrangères, issues de Meroüée, fils de Theodoric 2, Roy d’Austrasie, Bourgongne, &c.
Paris, Guillaume Le Noir, 1587.
[Following:] -Les droicts, autoritez et prerogatives que pretendent au Royaume de Hierusalem, les Princes & Seigneurs Spirituels & Temporels cy apres nommez : Le Pape, Patriarche, Empereur, Rois de France, Angleterre, Arragon, Naples, Hongrie, Cypre et Armenie, …
Paris, Guillaume Le Noir, 1586.
4to [225 x 150 mm] of: I/ (1) bl.l., (4) ll. for the title, the epistle and the table, 128 ll.; II/ (8) ll. for the title, the foreword and the table, 40 ll., (1) bl.l. Restoration at the right lower corner of the first leaf.
Bound in full marbled calf from the end of the 17th century, arms stamped in gilt in the centre of the covers, spine ribbed and decorated with a crowned cipher repeated in the panels, red morocco lettering-piece, mottled edges.
I/ Interesting genealogical study conducted in the 16th century by the Greek historian Etienne de Chypre on the origins of his family.
Brunet, III, 1239.
Etienne de Lusignan, who doesn’t hide his disdain for the legends related to the origins of his family, proposes to find its source far before Melusine, who he places only at the eleventh generation.
« The word “genealogist” appears in the French language in the middle of the 17th century, and not less than 130 legendary and historical genealogies have been published, according to Lenglet de Fresnoy, during the first modernity in France…
The nobility appreciates these genealogies which maintain the cult of lineage, as much as the heraldry. This massive but ambivalent use of the research of ancestors led the historians to search its meaning. For a long time we saw in this genealogical infatuation a material and recognition crisis of nobility, today strongly protested. Competed with the ascent of officers, discredited during the religious wars, finally unable to appear as holder of virtue, the great nobility would carry out with the participation of the monarchy a social jamming withdrawing into its rank…
Like the Dominican Étienne de Chypre emphasizes, the function of these genealogies for the families is to ‘show themselves as being from time immemorial’. »
(J.-M. Le Gall, Vieux saint et grande noblesse à l’époque moderne: Saint-Denis, les Montmorency et les Guise, Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine).
The Lusignans were a feudal dynasty from the Poitou, maybe related to the one of the Lusignans from the Agenais, which became famous with the legend of Melusine. We don’t know well the origin, and its continuation is sure only from the 10th century (towards 967). We name: Hugues IV, called le Brun (until towards 1030); Hugues V, treacherously killed in 1080, Hughes VI, called the Devil, who takes part in the first crusade, Hugues VII who follows Louis VII to the East, finally Hugues VIII, from whom the counts de la Marche and d’Angouleme are descendents on the first hand, and on the other hand the kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem are also descendents, and by these latter, the Lusignans of the Armenian Kingdom of Cicilia.
The dedication of the present work is addressed to François de Luxembourg, Duc de Piney.
The first text is illustrated at the verso of the table with a beautiful full-page woodcut showing Melusine carrying the coat-of-arms of the Lusignans, kings of Jerusalem, Cyprus, Armenia and of the Luxembourgs, emperor kings of Bohemia and Hungary.
II/ Rare first edition of the second text, in which Lusignan lists the various pretenders to the title, to the crown and the possession of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
« Etienne de Lusignan is a Greek historian born in 1537 in Nicosia (on the island of Cyprus), dead in 1590. He took holy orders of Saint Dominic, and changed his Christian name at this moment from Jacques to Etienne. In 1570 he came to Rome, and as the island of Cyprus was invaded by the Turks the following year, he stayed a while in Naples, from where he went to Paris in 1577. He lived ten years in this city. On April 27th 1578 the Pope Sixtus V appointed him bishop incumbent of Limassol. » (Biographie générale, 31, 278)
A precious copy bound with the arms and cipher of Henri-Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de la Force, peer of France, born on March 5th 1675, dead on July 22nd 1726.
« He was kidnapped from his parents who were Protestants in order to be raised in the college of the Jesuits; he even became an ardent persecutor of the Protestants in Saintonge and in Guyenne, when appointed colonel of a regiment; when his father died in 1699, the duc de Caumont inherited the title of duc de la Force and of the high position of peer of France; appointed member at the Académie Française on January 18th 1715, appointed vice-president of the council of finance in 1716, then member of the council of regency, he promoted the adoption of Law’s system. He died in July 1726. He married Anne-Marie de Beuzelin de Bosmelet on June 18th 1698, with who he had no child. » (Olivier, planche 1726; Guigard, Armorial du Bibliophile, 120-121)
Price: € 6 500
Account of two expeditions organized by Richelieu to North Africa
« Extremely rare first edition » of the Voyages d’Afrique by Armand (Chadenat).
An attractive copy in contemporary vellum.
ARMAND, Jean dit Mustapha. Voyages d’Afrique faicts par le commandement du Roy. Ou sont contenues les navigations des Fraçois, entreprises en 1629 & 1630 sous la conduite de Monsieur le Commadeur de Razilly des costes Occidentales des Royaumes de Fez & de Marroc… Ensemble la description des susdits Royaumes, Villes, Coustumes, Religion, Mœurs & commoditez de ceux dudit pays… Le tout illustré de curieuses observations par Jean Armand, Turc de Nation…
Paris, Nicolas Traboulliet, 1632.
Small 8vo [161 x 102 mm] of (1) bl.l., (4) ll., 320 pp. and (1) bl.l. Bound in contemporary overlapped vellum, flat spine with beautifully handwritten title and date. Contemporary binding.
Rare first edition with a title renewed of the relation of the expeditions organized by Richelieu in 1629 and 1630 to the coasts of Morocco. This is one of the oldest French books about Morocco.
Brunet, I, 483; Chadenat, 5008.
The privilege has been given on September 5th 1631 and few copies bear the date 1631. « Playfair in his «Bibliography of Morocco » says, concerning this book: ‘This work shows the great interest that Richelieu attached to the maritime preponderance of France and to commercial intercourse with Morocco’». (Chadenat, 5008)
Jean Armand, called Mustapha, born Turkish, came to France at the beginning of the 17th century to teach foreign languages. He became converted to the Christian religion by the Cardinal Richelieu. Richelieu creates a navy in 1626 appointing himself « Great Officer and Superintendant of the Navigation » and gives a great enlargement to the colonial settlements.
The trade situation of French in Africa is extremely precarious at that moment. The corsairs from Salé captured many French ships and sailors and kept them in slavery. In 1629, Richelieu makes his cousin, the knight Isaac de Razilly, founder of the French colonial policy in Acadia, responsible for an expedition to Morocco. Razilly takes Jean Armand as an interpreter. The purpose of the 1629 and 1630 expeditions was the restoration of trade with the coasts of Fez and Morocco, and the negotiations for the repurchase of the French slaves. During the second expedition, the French blockaded in front of Salé until obtaining the peace and freedom for the French. The captives were finally released, the French dealers were allowed to trade freely and the Christians to practice their religion.
These are these expeditions from 1629 and 1630 that Jean Armand reports, making use of the reports and official documents, letters, treatises that Razilly and Richelieu entrusted him. This very interesting work contains peculiar details concerning the manners and the religion of the inhabitants of this land, and observations about geography; it also shows the great interest that Richelieu had in the trade with North Africa.
The work is dedicated to Richelieu. In his foreword, the author pays homage to the Cardinal.
The book contains the story of the expedition as well as a « brief and shorten treatise of the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco », made, he says, by « a Turkish who was an eyewitness of the events, who saw the country, but also used books ».
Bibliographers emphasize the extreme scarceness of this work.
« First edition extremely rare of one of the oldest French works about Morocco. » (Chadenat)
Brunet only quotes one copy, the Langlès’ copy.
No copy is listed on the international market since the beginning of the reports 34 years ago.
A splendid wide-margined copy of this very rare travel relation, preserved in its contemporary overlapped vellum.
Provenance: autograph signature of Jean Juchereau de La Ferté, sieur de Maur (1592-1672) on the first pastedown. He was close to the New France governor, Isaac de Razilly. Once he arrived in Quebec in 1634, he became later general clerk of the shops of the New France.
According to a handwritten note from the 19th century on the first blank leaf, the copy would come from the fine Le Camus de Limare’s collection, scattered in 1786.
Price: € 12 500
Victor Hugo’s poetry in politics’ service
Victor Hugo’s poetry in politics’ service.
Guernesey, 1867.
HUGO, Victor. La Voix de Guernesey.
Guernesey, de l’imprimerie de T.-M. Bichard, 1867.
32mo [127 x 90 mm] of 16 pp. printed on very thin paper. Bound in red half morocco, flat spine with gilt title, date gilt-stamped on the foot of the spine. 20th century binding signed by Le Douarin.
Rare first edition printed to be illegally sent to France.
Clouzot p. 92; Carteret, I, 423.
« Quite rare. Printed on silk paper to be illegally sent to France. » (Clouzot)
« There is every indication that it is this edition, printed on very thin paper, without place or date, which has been sent under cover to France ». (Carteret).
« In 1867, Garibaldi, encouraged since a long time by Victor Hugo, takes the initiative in putting an end to the temporal power of the Pope and to give back Rome to the almost unified Italy. But France still protects the Pope, and is not ready to let the initiative to Garibaldi: the latter is arrested at the end of September, then placed under house arrest, at home in Caprera, a small island of the north-east of Sardinia. However he manages to escape and with four thousand men, launches an offensive on Rome at the end of October. Napoleon III decides to send a division, led by the general de Failly, to protect the Papal States: it disembarks on October 28th in Civitavecchia. Much larger and better equipped than Garibaldi’s troops, it wins a riskless victory in Mentana, a small town to the east of Rome, on November 3rd and 4th: six hundred Italians are killed, compared to twenty Papal soldiers and two French soldiers. Garibaldi, arrested again is sent back to Caprera.
When Victor Hugo learns the disaster of Mentana, he writes in three days a long poem that he entitles La Voix de Guernesey. 326 verses in three days, it is a good average. Working on ‘L’Homme qui rit’, Victor Hugo was in a prose period, and according to the chronology, had not written poems in four months. In his agenda, he emphasizes discreetly this feat: ‘ – I ended today on November 18th the thing entitled La Voix de Guernesey. November 16th. 17th. 18th. Three days.’ […]
On December 11th, a run of 500 copies printed at Thomas Mauger Bichard’s are brought to Victor Hugo. The pamphlet, without wrappers, that has for sole title La Voix de Guernesey, is a 32mo of 16 pages; at the verso of the title is the following inscription: De l’Imprimerie de T.-M. Bichard, rue du Bordage, Guernesey. One hundred copies in gallery proof copies printed in Guernesey and that Victor Hugo names the proofs have been sent to Brussels on November 23rd and will be used as example for the publication of La Voix de Guernesey in the newspapers. […]
After the exile, Victor Hugo will not ever integrate ‘La Voix de Guernesey’ into a poem collection. He will not publish it again before the publication of the second part of Actes et paroles, in 1875; taking up the section VIII of the year 1867, it will be renamed « Mentana ». But this publication will not be complete, the last ten verses of the fifth section, particularly anticlerical, being replaced by lines of dots. It is not until 1883 and the second part of Actes et paroles so that La Voix de Guernesey finally reappears in its entirety.
This piece has an obvious political status. The poem is divided in eight parts of unequal sizes but of similar construction, alexandrine blocks separated by a few line breaks:
I/ Mentana après la bataille, férocité du pape, honte des Français; II/ Responsabilité et hypocrisie du pape; III/ Règne du mal sur la terre, confusion du bien et du mal; IV/ Cynisme de la société et du pape; V/ Invitation de Victor Hugo à Garibaldi; VI/ Ce que Garibaldi aurait pu faire pour l’Italie; VII/ Le vrai responsable: Napoléon III, contraste entre la fête impériale et le champ de bataille; VIII/ Appel au réveil du peuple. »
(Claude Millet, Hugo et la guerre, Paris-2002, pp. 208-212).
At the end the work is dated: « Hauteville House, Novembre 1867 ». Hauteville House is the house of exile that Victor Hugo bought for himself in Guernesey in 1856.
An interesting copy of this fragile pamphlet in which Hugo asserts his political commitment, one of the rare copies which have come down to us.
Our researches allowed us to locate only 3 copies in all the public libraries of the world: in France, only the B.n.F. owns one, another one is preserved at the British Library, and a last one at the Yale University Library.
Price: € 3 000
First edition of the Pensées philosophiques by Diderot
First edition of the Pensées philosophiques by Diderot.
A copy in contemporary red morocco coming from
Louis Pierre Parat de Chalandray and Robert Hoe’s collections.
DIDEROT. Pensées philosophiques.
The Hague, Aux dépens de la Compagnie, 1746.
12mo [152 x 89 mm] of (1) bl.l., 1 frontispiece, (1) l. of title, 136 pp., (6) ll. of table, (1) bl.l.
Bound in contemporary full red morocco, triple gilt filet on covers, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt filets and fleurons, light-brown morocco lettering-piece, inner gilt border, flowered end-papers, gilt edges. A few small stains on covers. Contemporary binding.
First edition of the first great philosophical treatise by Diderot.
Tchemerzine, II, 919 ; David Adams, Bibliographie des œuvres de Denis Diderot, II, PD3 ; Niklaus (1965).
A copy on thick paper from the first issue according to Niklaus and Tchemerzine, with the printing errors mentioned by the latter at pp. 31 to 34 and 43 to 46 (ref. : Tchemerzine, II, 919) ; from the third issue according to David Adams (ref. : David Adams, II, PD3).
« The rare first issue contains printing errors at pp. 31 to 34 and 43 to 46 » (Tchemerzine).
The work appears like an eulogy of deism, opposed in the meantime to the revealed religions, especially to christianity and to atheism.
« Diderot denounces the absurdity of the different dogmas of the Christian religion that he judges as immoral, while emphasizing the weakness of the evidences invoked by it, notably historical evidences, most of the time based on suspicious statements. He also blames the ideal of asceticism of Christian moral to which he proposes to substitute a moral aiming a free development of the human nature. Besides Diderot undertakes to refute atheism that he opposes to the sight of the order of nature, especially the one ruling the living world, which reveals, according to him, the existence of a creative intelligence. Nevertheless he recognizes the strength of the arguments presented by the atheists, and that it is why sometimes it was said that the deism paraded by Diderot was the mask of an atheism which did not dare to tell its real name ».
The treatise contains 62 philosophical thoughts.
The moment that it was published, it was condemned to fire by the Parliament of Paris on July 7th 1746 as « presenting to the worried and rash minds the spite of the most criminal and the most absurd opinions, which depravity of the human reason is capable of, and placing by a feigned uncertainty all the religions on the same rank ending up as unable to acknowledge any of them ».
Belin : Le mouvement philosophique de 1748 à 1789, p. 25. Parie, 1913.
The present work is illustrated in first issue with an engraved frontispiece representing the Truth, standing on the right pulling out the mask from the Superstition who, knocked over, is holding a broken scepter.
A beautiful wide-margined copy preserved in its contemporary red morocco.
Provenance: handwritten note on the endleaf: « Donné le 17 février 1782 à Mr. De Chalandray par Mme. sa mere » and Robert Hoe with ex libris.
Louis Pierre Parat de Chalandray (1746-1836) is a high-ranking official and French politician. He was the last lord of La Celle Saint-Cloud and of Bazemont under the Ancien Régime, and the mayor of Bazemont for 22 years. He was born in Paris on November 14th 1746. Coming from a family of powerful financiers, his father is Jérome Louis Parat de Montgeron (1713-1792). He starts his public career as receiver-general of finances of Lorraine and Barrois, office inherited from his father, then he becomes receiver-general of finances of the Orleanais.
Price: € 15 000
Treatise dedicated to the shamelessness of 17th century women
Rare first edition of this treatise of Jacques Boileau
dedicated to the shamelessness of 17th century women.
[BOILEAU, Jacques]. De l’abus des nuditez de gorge.
Brussels, François Foppens, 1675.
12mo [146 x 83 mm] of (3) ll., 110 pp.
Bound in 19th century red full morocco, triple gilt fillet on covers, spine ribbed and richly gilt, inner gilt border, gilt edges on marbling. Binding signed Duru 1846.
Rare first edition of this peculiar opuscule attributed to Jacques Boileau, Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux’s brother.
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, 8; Bulletin Morgand et Fatout, 10836; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, 47-48; Brunet, I, 22; P. L. Jacob, Enigmes et découvertes bibliographiques, pp. 276-280; Gay, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour, 12.
Jacques Boileau (1635-1716), a French theologian and doctor at the Sorbonne, Gilles and Nicolas Boileau’s brother, was for 25 years vicar-general and legal vicar of the diocese of Sens.
« He had the spirit focused on satire and jest. His numerous works are enlivened by a biting style and by a thousand peculiar remarks: they announce an amazing scholarship and a rather important boldness of mind. »
« At the beginning of the first edition of this peculiar treatise, the Printer presents it, in the Notice to the reader, as “the effect of zeal and piety of a French gentleman who went through Flanders, and seeing that there most of the women had their breast and shoulders naked and were coming that way close to the place of confession and even of the holy Table” was so scandalized that he promised to send to this country, on his return to France, a document in which he would show the overindulgence and the dissoluteness of this custom. However the printer of the first edition: ‘De l’Abus des nuditez de gorge’ (Brussels, 1675, 12mo) is François Foppens, who had at that time frequent relations with French writers, and who was taking care of publishing the works they were not daring to circulate at first in France. Belgium was, in the seventeenth century, a sort of neutral place for French literature and bookselling.
It is certain that the author of this small book was French, if not a gentleman. That is not to say that it was Jacques Boileau, doctor at the Sorbonne, vicar-general and legal vicar of the diocese of Sens, brother of the great satirical Boileau-Despréaux. Jacques Boileau, who published a ‘Histoire des Flagellant’s, a ‘Histoire de la Confession auriculaire’, a ‘Traité des Attouchements impudiques’, chose preferably scabrous and difficult subjects; but ordinarily he wrote in Latin, even though he was very capable to write in a very good French. Thus, nothing proves that Jacques Boileau is the writer of ‘l’Abus des nuditez de gorge’, treatise written in very good French, but of which no Latin version is known. We tried to look for another author to whom we could attribute this small work, reprinted in Paris in 1667. We believed that under this pseudonym of a French gentleman was hidden a less known clergyman than Father Boileau, Mr de Neuilly, priest of Beauvais, that literary history does not mention anywhere […]. The scholar Barbier, in his ‘Dictionnaire des anonymes’, confined himself to Jacques Boileau: we shall keep this example until we know more.
[…] The treatise of ‘l’Abus des nuditez de gorge’, of which a third edition exists, printed in Paris in 1680, was written by a man who knew how to write, who lived in society, and who tackles openly, with great delicacy, the thorny subject he chose among all.
This anonymous, despite the semblances of strictness he gives to himself, had his heart set on being read by ladies. He always expresses himself with affinity and politeness. » (P. L. Jacob)
The work is divided into two parts, one of them dealing with the nuisance and the guilt of naked shoulders and breast; and the other one dealing with the vain excuses of women to allow this abuse. The subject is contained in 113 paragraphs, divided like this, 44 in the first part and 69 in the second one.
« […] Some details turn Boileau into an amateur-aesthete. He often comes back to the danger of gazing at a nice naked breast’; and he obviously speaks to men, he never expels himself from the assaulted and tempted group. It is mainly complicity between desiring men that Boileau establishes. Indisputably, here, the eye is for him the high road to temptation. The first edition of the text repeated like an incantation the expression ‘par la nudité du sein’ that is to say, the breast nudity […]. Despite his daring words, Boileau is not one of those libertine Fathers of the court devoted to an anti-catholic erotic production. On the contrary he is in line with a thought which orthodoxy is not involved. If his ‘Abus des nudités de gorge’ matters, it is first because it emphasizes the hold of the confessional method over minds – Boileau obviously feels the need to confess– but it is also because this text illustrates the impasse where the sermons stand that end erotically overinvesting the subject itself they were trying to conceal.» (La femme au XVIIe siècle, Richard G. Hodgson, p. 260).
A beautiful copy of this treatise dedicated to the shamlessness of women, fineley bound in red morocco by Duru.
OCLC lists only one copy among all the public institutions, at the Cleveland Public Library.
Provenance: from P. Desq’s collection with exlibris (catalogue from 1866, n°77).
Price: € 3 500
The most important book from the 18th century dedicated to the Ottoman Empire
First edition of the most important work from the 18th century
dedicated to the Ottoman Empire.
Prestigious copy with the first volume contemporary bound with the posthumous arms
of Maria Theresa of Austria, Holy Roman Empress and queen of Hungary and Bohemia.
MOURADJA D’OHSSON, Ignace de. Tableau général de l’empire Othoman, divisé en deux parties, dont l’une comprend la Législation Mahométane ; l’autre, l’Histoire de l’Empire Othoman. Dédié au roi de Suède.
Paris, de l’imprimerie de Monsieur, 1787-1790.
2 parts in 2 volumes large folio (505 x 330 mm) of: I/(4) ll. including the frontispiece, x pp., (1) l., 324 pp., (2) ll., 2 charts on double-page (marked A and AA), 1 folding-pl. (B), 1 pl. of writings (C), and 23 plates out of pagination representing 37 figures including 3 on double-page; II/ (1) l., viii pp., 357, 41 plates including 4 folding plates representing the subjects 41 to 137.
Part 1 bound in contemporary red Russian young goat , triple gilt filet on borders of the covers, arms gilt-stamped in the centre, spine ribbed and decorated, green morocco lettering-pieces, inner gilt border, blue watered silk doublures and endpapers, gilt edges. Part 2 bound in contemporary green quarter-calf, spine ribbed.
First edition of this fundamental work for the understanding of the Ottoman Empire.
Brunet, III, 1932 ; Cohen 763 ; Graesse 618 ; Blackmer 1164 ; Atabey 846.
« The only perfect source of information regarding the laws and constitution of the Turkish Empire ». Burckhardt
The second volume is dedicated to the Muslim religion and its rituals. It comprises details about the two holy cities and the pilgrimages, and shows a superb view of the Mecca.
« A very well executed work. The first two volumes deal with religion and Mahometan legislation. [… »] (Brunet)
« For Turkey, the excellent work of Mouradja d’Ohsson must not be omitted. The plates are beautifully executed in the line manner, and the testimony of Burckhardt to the valuable and interesting information this work contains, should alone secure it a place in every well chosen library. It is a noble work in all respects, and I give it an earnest and hearty recommendation to every collector of spirit and taste” (T. Frognall Dibdin, The Library Companion, p. 436).
Mouradja d’Ohsson, born in Constantinople, was the secretary and first interpreter of the Swedish ambassador in Constantinople. He became a chargé d’affaires in 1782 and was appointed chevalier of the order of Wasa, then plenipotentiary minister and extraordinary envoy.
« He offered to write Selim II’s reign, but soon he conceived the plan of a ‘Tableau général de l’empire ottoman’, from then he devoted himself without reservation to this venture. In 1784, as d’Ohsson had managed to obtain not without difficulty a definite knowledge about uses, habits, customs, internal practices of the seraglio that had always missed to the rest of Europe, about a nation that has always been unable to become familiar with, he went to Paris to implement his rich materials. In 1788 he published the first folio volume of the ‘Tableau général de l’empire ottoman’; he published the second one the following year. The revolution that arose in France suspended his literary enterprise; he went to Constantinople […]. This work was about to be finished when d’Ohsson died in 1807, and this great project was let incomplete. » (Peignot, Dictionnaire biographique et bibliographique, 557)
A third volume, published by courtesy of the author’s son desirous to continue the project of his father, will appear 30 years later, in 1820.
The excellent and abundant illustration comprises 1 frontispiece and 68 plates representing 138 subjects, including 9 on double-page and 2 folding. A large part of the illustrations was engraved after drawings by J. B. Hilaire, the artist who went with Choiseul-Gouffier in 1776. Other plates are engraved after drawings by Moreau le jeune and Cochin.
As plates 13, 19 and 36 of the first volume were printed late, and consequently delivered after the publication of the volume, they are not present in our copy that was bound as soon as the printing of the volume ended.
« As plates 13, 19 and 36 of the first part were executed after the volume, they are missing […]. » (Brunet)
« This work has not been finished. The first volume encloses besides an engraved title and 4 plates marked A, AA, B and C 40 plates numbered 1-40 (pl. 13, 19 and 36 have been executed after the volume and are usually missing), the second one pl. 41-137 ». (Graesse)
« Plates 13, 19 and 36 are missing in many copies » (Cohen).
A prestigious copy of the most important publication from the 18th century dedicated to the Ottoman Empire. The first volume that was published shortly after the death of Maria Theresa of Austria was contemporary bound in red morocco with her posthumous arms.
Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780) has been Holy Roman empress, archduchess of Austria, and queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She led the War of the Bavarian Succession (1740-1748) against Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony as well as France and Spain. This war made her lose Silesia. In 1745, she had her husband Francis I elected Holy Roman emperor, because she could not officially have this title. Impressed by her outdoing personality her contemporaries soon named her « the great Maria Theresa ». Then she led the war against Frederick II in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1762), in order to get back Silesia, but she failed. Maria Theresa of Austria is the mother of 16 children, including Marie-Antoinette, who married Louis XVI in 1770.
The second volume which was published at a later date was bound in a simple green quarter-calf binding.
Price: € 19 500
Historical pamphlets from the 17th century
Rare compilation of two historical pieces of the highest interest,
composed in honour of the assassination of the marshal d’Ancre and of his wife in 1617.
[MATTHIEU, Pierre]. La Magicienne estrangere, Tragedie. En laquelle on voit les tiranniques comportemens, origine, entreprises, desseins, sortileges, arrest, mort & supplice, tant du Marquis d’Ancre que de Leonor Galligay sa femme, avec l’avantureuse rencontre de leurs funestes ombres. Par un bon Français neveu de Rothomagus.
Jouxte la coppie imprimee à Rouen par David Geoffroy, & Jacques Besongne, rue des Cordeliers joignant sainct Pierre, 1618.
[Followed by]:
-La Victoire du Phebus françois contre le python de ce temps. Tragedie. Où l’on voit les dessins, pratiques, Tyrannies, Meurtres, Larcins, Mort & Ignominie dudit Python.
A Paris, jouxte la copie imprimée à Rouen chez Thomas Mallart, s.d.
8vo [159 x 104 mm] of 32 pp. and 31 pp. Copper-engraved portrait of Odieuvre depicting Léonore Galigaï added at the beginning of the volume. Bound in light-brown full morocco from the 19th century, spine ribbed, red and green morocco lettering-pieces, inner gilt border, gilt edges. Binding signed Thibaron.
Rare reprint of the extremly rare first edition, of this anonymous tragedy composed in verses in the honour of the marchioness d’Ancre’s execution.
On the original: Tchemerzine, IV, 647 ; Brunet, III, 1295 ; Barbier, 1869-1879, 107-108, Soleinne, Bibliothèque dramatique, 3730.
« Very rare. The author of this tragedy is Pierre Matthieu and not Pierre de Sainte-Marthe, like Leris says […]; the historiographer P. Matthieu , who had a strong vocation for the plays of that kind. We find in it simple, noble and touching verses; Galigay’s character is well painted, and the scene of the execution must have made a great effect on the audience, if it was performed. The characters are the great Pan françois (Louis XIII), Aymelis de L. (Luynes), Léontilde de V. (de Villeroy), Almidor de N. (de Nemours), Argente du M. (Maine), Lucidor de L. (de Longueville), the Solon françois (the president Deslandes), Galigay, etc. The author followed the spirit and the letter of the judgement that condemned the marshal’s wife as a witch and made her confess her evil spells […]. This tragedy, composed in honour of a legal assassination, is preceded by a sonnet in praise of the king. » (Soleinne, 3730)
« Eléonore Galigaï, daughter of a joiner, married the famous and unlucky Concini, ever since marshal d’Ancre. Galigaï came to France with Marie de’ Medici, of whom she was foster sister; she obtained for her husband with intrigue the most brilliant positions. The insolent abuse they made of their favours aroused all those in high places in the Court, and especially Louis XIII. Concini was killed and his wife taken to the Bastille. She was ascribed a thousand crimes, and especially the one of magic. This trial started on May 3rd 1617, says Anquetil; she was condemned, on July 8th, to be decapitated and to have her body burnt, she died without bravado nor fright […]. A tragedy was made about her death, entitled: ‘La Magicienne étrangère’, in 4 acts and in verses, Rouen, 1617, 8vo ». (Peignot, Dictionnaire biographique et bibliographique, 8).
« Rare piece » emphasizes Brunet.
« M. Paul Lacroix (Catal. Soleinne, n° 3730), points out in this tragedy simple, noble and touching verses. There are other editions of this tragedy that provoked a vivid feeling of curiosity; it perfectly met the passions of the day. » (Barbier, 107-108).
« A 32-page play, very scarce; it tackles the marshal d’Ancre’s wife, after her tragic ending, with cruel relentlessness. The character of the unfortunate Galinaï is well painted. » (Robert Naumann, Serapeum, 26)
This violent pamphlet published anonymously against the marhsal d’Ancre’s wife was such a success that it was reprinted several times between 1617 and 1626.
Bound with the present work is another play, also rare as well, that tells Concini’s murder, on April 24th 1617. It is the reprint of the first edition. (Brunet, V, 910; Soleinne, 3729)
« The “Paris, jouxte la copie imprimée à Rouen” edition has been copied, page for page and line for line from the first edition. » (Brunet)
« Very scarce piece that reproduces in the dramatic form the historical details of the marshal d’Ancre’s murder, on the Louvre’s drawbridge, by Charles d’Albert, duke of Luyne, Vitry and other king agents. The characters of this tragedy are Python M.D. (marquis d’Ancre), Phebus, R. de F. (king of France), Lydor de G. (de Guise), Alcé D.D., Antimars de V. (Vitry), Galligay, Ruburo Demon (Montalto, Venetian astrologer), Cleridam de L. (de Luynes), Theocrat de V. (de Villeroy), Arlin du M. (du Maine), Toleon de N. (de Nemours). […] It is possible that the author introduced himself under the poet named Alcé D.D. These two initials would represent then the name of Mr de Deimiers, author of the “Liberté royale de Marseille”, work published in Paris in 1615, with the same initials. » (Soleinne, 3729)
No copy of one or the other of these two texts has been recorded on the public market for more than thirty years.
A precious copy gathering two pamphlets of the highest historical interest.
Provenance: from E.M. Bancel’s collection with exlibris.
Prix : € 4 500
The Duke of Orleans’ travel through Algeria
One of the rare dedication copies contemporary bound with the Duke of Orleans’ monogram
of the Journal de l’Expédition des Portes de Fer.
From Henri Beraldi’s collection.
NODIER, Charles. Journal de l’Expédition des Portes de Fer rédigé par Charles Nodier de l’Académie française.
Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1844.
Large 8vo [270 x 177 mm] of (1) bl. l., (2) ll. for the half-title and the title, XVI pp., 329 pp., (1) bl. l. 40 plates out of pagination and 1 folding map. Slight foxing.
Bound in green shagreen, covers decorated with important gilt corner patterns joined with filets, with two gilt filets and another wide blind-stamped on covers, crowned gilt monogram in the centre of covers, spine ribbed and decorated, inner gilt filets, white paper doublures and fly-leaves, gilt edges. Binding signed Andrieux.
First issue of the historical account written by the writer Charles Nodier on the Duke of Orleans’ demand meant to be offered to his companions in arms.
Sole edition of this remarkable work which was not issued for sale, one of only 1520 copies printed.
Carteret 434-437.
« In 1839, the Duke of Orleans, the elder son of king Louis-Philippe, had accomplished a long, difficult and sometimes dangerous journey through barely conquered and still not pacified Algeria. The young prince had brought back some notes from this expedition; then he asked the master writer Charles Nodier to write this ‘Expédition des Portes de Fer’.
The book’s printing was entrusted to the Imprimerie Royale and the illustration to masters like Raffet, Decamps and Dauzats[…]
The incurred expense was of 91 205 fr. 35 cents, an important sum at the time.
The work, a private book, familiar, written for a few, was meant for the members of the royal family, State dignitaries, dignitaries of the Court, officers, non-commissioned officers and for soldiers who took part in the expedition. […] Time has passed and copies became scarce, mainly dedication copies bearing a name, that you shouldn’t let escape. »Carteret.
The illustration is composed of around 150 vignettes in the text, 40 out of pagination woodcuts after Raffet, Dauzats and Decamps, printed before the letter on China paper and mounted on thick vellum, and of a folding map representing « la route de Philippeville à Alger suivie par la colonne expéditionnaire » in October 1839.
Each out of pagination engraving is protected by a captioned silky paper.
One of the rare copies having a binding decorated with special tools and with a monogram.
« Few copies were contemporary bound in red morocco or shagreen with special tools; they are very scarce and preferable to the copies presented in the original cased binding. » Carteret.
A precious copy contemporary bound by andrieux with the Duke of Orleans’ monogram and offered by him to his friend Scheffer.
In front of the title-page is written this dedication: « Donné au nom de Monseigneur le duc d’Orléans à son ami Monsieur A. Scheffer ».
The present copy comes from the great bibliophile and expert’s collection, Henri Beraldi and figured in the catalogue of his auction in 1934 (Vente III, 1934, n°360).
It was described in it like a « very beautiful copy», preserved in a « fine and rare binding of Andrieux, with the Duke of Orleans’ monogram » that was reproduced in full page.
Price: € 8 500
Very rare first edition of this chronicle of the reign of Louis XII
Very rare first edition of this history of Louis XII
by Claude de Seyssel, the king’s ambassador.
A prestigious copy from the collections
comte de Lurde, baron de Ruble, Edouard Rahir and Laurent Meeûs.
SEYSSEL, Claude de. Les Louenges du roy Louys XIIe de ce nom nouvellement composées en latin par maistre Claude de Seyssel docteur en tous droits et maistre des requestes ordinaires de l’hostel du Roy… Cum privilegio. – Cy finist les louenges du roy Louys XIIe […] imprime a Paris nouvellement par Anthoine Verard le xxiiiie iour de decembre mil cinq cens et huit.
Paris, Anthoine Verard, 24 décembre 1508.
Gothic 4to [226 x 157 mm], (58) ff.
Bound in red full morocco, spine ribbed and decorated with gilt fleurs-de-lis, blue morocco doublures entirely decorated with a seme of fleurs-de-lis, edges gilt. Binding signed Trautz-Bauzonnet.
Very rare first edition of this Chronicle of the reign of Louis XII.
Picot, Catalogue Rothschild, 2105 ; Bibliothèque Edouard Rahir 676 ; Macfarlane 89 ; Brunet, V, 329.
Originally written in Latin, the work was printed for the first time in French, in the translation given by the author himself. No Latin edition of this work is known.
The Louenges du roy Louis XII were reprinted under several titles in 1558, 1587 and 1615.
Claude de Seyssel (1450-1520) went to the court of Louis XII and he was sent in 1508 on a mission to Henri VII, king of England. At that time Claude was an ecclesiastic. In 1509 he was elected bishop of Marseille. As the French ambassador, he was present at the famous diet of Treves in 1512 and at the Latran Council in 1514. In 1517 he accepted the archbishopric of Turin offered by the Duke of Savoy.
The present work is illustrated on the back of the title-page with a full-page woodcut showing the author giving his book to the king. There is also the large printer’s mark of Verard on the last leaf.
A precious wide-margined copy, gilt over untrimmed edges, from the prestigious collections of the comte de Lurde, baron de Ruble, Edouard Rahir and Laurent Meeûs, with their ex libris, richly bound in morocco with morocco doublures by Trautz-Bauzonnet.
We were able to locate only 3 copies of the present work in institutions: at the Bibliothèque of Aix-en-Provence, at the B.n.F. and at the British Museum. The Bibliothèque Méjanes of Aix-en-Provence owns a copy bound with the cypher of Louis XII.
OCLC doesn’t record any copy.
Price: € 35 000
Very precious work for the history of Mexico
Very rare first edition of this precious work for the history of Mexico City.
Mexico, 1637.
CEPEDA, Fernando de / CARRILLO, Fernando Alfonso. Relacion Universal legitima, y verdadera del sitio en que esta fundada la muy noble, insigne, y muy leal Ciudad de Mexico, cabeça de las Provincias de toda la Nueva Espana. Lagunas, Rios, y Montes que la cinen y rodean. Calçadas que las dibiden. Y Azequias que la atraviesan. Ynundaciones que à padecido desde su Gentilidad. Remedios aplicados. Desagues propuestos, y emprendidos. Origen y fabrica del de Gueguetoca, y estado en que oy se halla. Ymposiciones, derramas, y gastos que se an hecho. Forma con que se a auctuado desde el ano de 1553 hasta el presente de 1637. [Avec la suite].
Mexico, Francisco Salbago, 1637.
4 parts bound in 1 volume folio [278 x 196 mm], (2) ff., 31 ff., 41 ff. (misnumbered 42), 41 ff. numbered 1 to 28 and 29 to 39 ( ff. 17-18 are repeated), (1) l., 11 ff. Complete copy.
Bound in contemporary brown calf, decorated spine, new endleaves, edges red. Joints rubbed.
Very rare first edition of this precious work for the history of Mexico City.
Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 1095 ; Brunet, I, 1739 ; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, 103 ; Sabin 11693 ; Medina, La imprenta en México, II, 484.
Written 8 years after the terrible flood that devastated Mexico City in 1629, « this very rare book contains an official account of the celebrated Desaque, or canal of Gueguetoca, called, by Humboldt, Huehuetoca, which was constructed to carry off the superabundant waters of the lake of Mexico. Humboldt gives a full account of this stupendous undertaking. Rich”. (Sabin).
The fourth part of the book was printed 3 months after the publication of the work and is often missing.
A precious complete copy, with the very rare fourth part, preserved in its contemporary binding.
A very rare work. Among French institutions, only the B.n.F. has a copy. OCLC only records 2 complete copies: University of California, Berkeley and University of Oxford.
Not one of the 3 copies that appeared at auction since 1975 had the fourth part of the text.
Price: €45 000