N.p. [Rouen], 1659 (1669) [but 1675].
2 parts bound in 4 volumes 12mo [151 x 85 mm] of: I/ (12) ll., 262 pp.; II/ pp. 263 to 488, (5) ll. of table ; III/ 210 pp. ; IV/ pp. 211 to 459, (9) pp. of table and 1 figure in the text on p. 347. Olive brown morocco, blind-stamped fillet around the covers, spines ribbed, gilt edges. Contemporary binding.
Precious edition of François Rabelais’s Works, one of the last to be published in the seventeenth century.
« It’s a backdated counterfeit. It contains the same pieces as the two previous editions, with, in addition, a ‘key to the Rabelais’, which betrays the falseness of the date. This ‘key’, indeed, appeared for the first time in 1675.
In the June / July 1851 ‘Bulletin of the Bibliophile’, M. J. Chenu published a note on this edition, which he believes to be truly printed by the Elseviers. A simple inspection of the sphere printed on the titles demonstrates the impossibility of this hypothesis. the edition we describe – elegant, besides, as much as from the typographical point of view as well as the quality of paper – seems according to us to have been printed in Rouen.
It has been counterfeited itself several times, probably in Brussels. We have under our eyes three different imitations (with the date of 1659 on the two parts), badly printed and on bad paper ».
Plan, Les Éditions de Rabelais, 130.
It is preceded by a note on the life of Rabelais. In addition, the second part includes a 77-page alphabet devoted to the explanation of the terms used by Rabelais in his Works as well as a Key.
The edition is illustrated with a full-page figure representing the Dive Bottle.
Old editions of Rabelais’s Works are all much sought-after.
A very attractive copy, of great purity, of this elegant edition of the Works of Rabelais, preserved in its contemporary binding in olive morocco, a condition of the utmost rarity for the ancient editions of Rabelais.
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