BOOKS IN FRENCH      

FIRST toTimbuktu & Back

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•  First edition. Caillié, a French explorer and adventurer inspired by a boyhood love of Robinson Crusoe, spent eight months in Senegal posing as a convert to Islam and learning Arabic; he was also the first modern European traveller to make a successful voyage to Timbuktu and back — Maj. Gordon Lang preceded him to the city, but was murdered during his travel home. Caillié was awarded the Société de Géographie de Paris prize of 10,000 francs for his completed trip, despite his description of his travels through Senegal, Mali, and the Sahara's having been met with some skepticism in his native France; the travelogue was better received in England, and very popular in translation there.

Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author.

•  Howgego, II, C2.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Five plates and one map lacking (frontispiece present); two leaves each with tear along inner margin, not touching text; foxed throughout but without embrittlement.  (24387)

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The Pope Lays It Down Here

•  Translation from Italian into French of two letters from Cardinal Sfondrati, nephew of Pope Gregory XIV: one addressed to the French nobility and one addressed to Monsieur de Luxembourg, both written on behalf of the Pope. Gregory XIV was actively involved in the French Wars of Religion, arguing against the Navarrese cause; here he (by way of Sfondrati) defends his right to intercede in the succession of France and questions the Catholic devotion of the wayward nobles, given their support of Henry. The second letter notes that France needs a king and that king needs must be Catholic, but “dire que le Nauarrois deuie[n]dra Catholique, c'est chose qui n'est point croyable” (p. 10). Click the image for an enlargement.

This little pamphlet appears to be a scarce variant; OCLC finds no holdings, and the title is not listed by Lindsay & Neu.

•  Not in Lindsay & Neu, French Political Pamphlets 1547–1648.   Disbound. Title-page with paper shelving label, institutional pressure-stamp, and residue from previous nonce binding along inner margin; four other pages also pressure-stamped. Additional inked pagination in upper outer corners, in an early hand.  (24463)

PERSIA in10 Volumes & 79 Plates

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•  Attractive French edition of Sir John Chardin's Persian travelogue, originally published in 1686. Brunet calls the account, which covers Chardin's voyages through India, Russia, and Persia, "un des plus intéressants que l'on ait publiés" in the 18th century; the work was and continues to be a major source of information on contemporary Persian politics, government, religion, and culture. The title-pages are printed in red and black, and the 10 volumes are illustrated with a total of 79 plates (many folding) and tables, including one map and one frontispiece.

•  Brunet, I, 1802. Contemporary speckled calf, spines extra gilt; edges, joints and extremities rubbed, leather in some cases cracked or starting along joints or chipped at spine extremities, two spines with compartments chipped. All edges speckled. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate, front free endpapers rubber-stamped and with inked ownership inscriptions dated [18]67, title-pages except for vol. I rubber-stamped, reverse of map in vol. I rubber-stamped, some vols. with first text page rubber-stamped. Additional plate (creased) laid in, seemingly excised from another work.

Wisdom, Censored — Post-PURCHASE?!

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•  Later printing of Charron’s final work, a philosophical treatise which was first published in 1601 and which was strongly connected to Montaigne’s essays. Although the author was a Catholic priest widely acclaimed for skillful preaching, he and La Sagesse came under bitter attack by the clergy when the work first appeared, on the grounds of its promoting skepticism and free thinking. This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised.  The much more staid frontispiece portrait of the author, done by Pruneau, is undamaged.

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.

The Augsburg Confession — 51 Documents
The First Much Annotated  

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•  Uncommon sole edition: The first French translation of the Historia Augustanae Confessionis, published in 1578. This collection of 51 documents laying out the chief principles of Lutheran doctrine was edited by Chytraeus and translated into French by Luc le Cop, a Savoyard living in Antwerp.

Chytraeus (1531–1600, born David Kochhafe) was a pupil of Luther's and Melanchthon's, and a professor of theology at the University of Rostock; he contributed significantly to the writing of the Formula of Concord.

Rare.  OCLC lists only four U.S. holdings and one deaccessioned copy (the present example).

Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of William Jackson, an important collector whose substantial library was auctioned by the Harrassowitz firm in 1910.

•  Brunet 22420; Graesse, II, 154. Not in Adams.   19th-century quarter olive morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author/title; edges and extremities rubbed. Top edge gilt. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; title-page and first text page each with early inked ownership inscription. Four leaves with small repaired tears from outer margins and three likewise from upper margins, not touching text in any case. Extensive early inked marginalia in first document, scattered examples elsewhere.  (23536)

Huguenot Horrors —Translated forENGLISH Readers, 1686

•  Cry of outrage against France’s cruel treatment of the Huguenots, here translated into English from Claude’s original Plaintes des Protestants cruellement opprimez dans le royaume de France; several English renditions appeared in London and Dublin in 1686, with the present item being one of the more complete versions. In addition to recording the depredations of the dragoons, the work rebuts claims that the Protestants had either ceased to exist as a recognizable body or were willingly converting to Catholicism; protests the breaking of the Edict of Nantes; and notes the hypocrisy of forcibly imposing religious beliefs—a compelled conversion is here equated to, “I believe nothing, and that I’le be a Turk, or a Jew, or whatever the King pleases” (p. 35). The texts of Louis XIV’s edict prohibiting open practice of the reformed religion and of the oaths to be sworn by recanting Protestants are appended.

•  Wing (rev.) C4589. Removed sometime from a nonce volume and now contained in a cloth-covered clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label. Lacks the title-page; otherwise complete, with small loss of paper (not nearing text) at inner lower corners and one leaf with “chip” (only) of lower outer corner torn away (this perhaps in fact a paper flaw, and, again, far from type). One page with early monogram inked in upper outer corner; last page with neat stamp marking institutional deaccession (ex-Folger Shakespeare Library).

False Imprint

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•  First edition of these “Déclamations énergiques contre Louis XIV, à l'occasion des persécutions suscitées aux protestants” (Brunet), written by a Huguenot minister and theologian who fled France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The work was issued under the fictitious Marteau imprint, well known as a shelter for satirical, political, pirated, and otherwise questionable or potentially scandalous works; this is an early “Marteau” item, with the first such imprint having appeared in 1660.

Provenance: Howard Osgood.

•  Brunet, IV, 683.   Contemporary calf, spine elegantly gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls; leather acid-pitted, edges and extremities a bit rubbed. Title-page with small inked owner's name and institutional pressure-stamp. Damp-spotting to first and last few pages; some leaves starting to separate, many with lower outer corners crumpled. Intermittent underlining and marks of emphasis in red pencil throughout. (20861)

L'essence du Tao — Systèmes Nya'ya et Vais'echi'ka

•  French translation of two papers on Hindu philosophy, by the great English scholar of Sanskrit, which first appeared in the “Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society,” in five parts, 1823–7. First essay: “Philosophie Sa'nkya.” Second essay: “Systèmes Nya'ya et Vais'echi'ka.” Also includes an appendix to the first essay and “Spécimen d'une edition et d'une traduction critiques du Tao-Te-King de Lao-Tseu. Argument du Ier chapitre.” Click the images for enlargements.

•  19th-century German boards, with black mottled paper, spine with inked paper title label; edges and small areas of covers rubbed and abraded, boards exposed on corners, spine chipped at head. All edges stained red. Ex-library with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number in black on spine and in pencil on verso of title-page, paper shelf label (with call number blacked out) on lower left corner of front cover, and four-digit number in ink on p. [iii]. No stamps and, withal, Very Good.  (19255)

Bridgewater Library — French Theater

•  A Bridgewater Library set with its enormous armorial bookplate. A late edition.

•  Contemporary calf. Gilt spines, rebacked and original spines reapplied. Spines very dry, chipped with some loss and lacking title labels, but with new volume labels.

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Cortes's Stirring Lettersin French

•  French-language edition of the second, third, and fourth letters incorrectly numbered respectively as the first, second, and third. Translated by M. le vicomte de Flavigny. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 16953.   Contemporary treed calf, front joint (outside) starting at top to open. A good+ copy — in fact, a rather nice one.  (20510)

Suppression-EraHistory of the Jesuits

•  Early edition of this history and rules of the Jesuits published during the suppression of the order, complete with six volumes in five. The first edition, appearing in four volumes, was published in Paris, in 1760; another early four-volume edition was published in Rouen, in 1761.

Vols. I–III consist of a history of the Society of Jesus from its origins up to the time of this printing, with bibliographic references. Vols. III–IV contain the “Articles de l'Analyse des Constitutions & Privilege,” attributed to Louis-Adrien Le Paige (cf. Barbier, Dict. des Ouvrages Anon.). The table of contents appear at the end of vol. IV. Vols. V–VI are the Supplement aux Quatre Volumes Précédens with the imprint: “Amsterdam, Chez J. Schreuder, 1767.”

Provenance:  From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

Scarce: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three copies.

•  Uncut set. Each volume in a recent burgundy moiré cloth dust jacket with title and volume number gilt-stamped on green leather spine labels; this over 19th-century paper boards with paper hand-lettered title label, and paper shelf label with library call number blacked out, on spine. Covers moderately soiled and spines darkened; surface abrasions on spine and edges, small chips on joints; corners bumped. Deckle edges. Text with only a faint staining and foxing on several pages; four-digit numeral neatly inked at base of vol. I title-page; very occasional notations; and library bookplate on front pastedowns. Handsome on the shelf, comfortable in the hands.  (23964)

ELIZABETH Must Have Loved HisThinking on Monarchy

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•  First edition. Richard Crompton, member and bencher of the Middle Temple, states in his dedication to Sir John Puckering that this legal treatise was written in the fields and in his house during the leisure hours of his retirement so that he could find solace in his old age. The Dictionary of National Biography notes that it was “commended in North's Discourse on the Study of the Law” and that “a selection of Star-chamber Cases was made from this work and published in 1630 and 1641.”

The work has significant political theory interest: Crompton offers legal reasoning to justify an uncompromising hierarchical society governed by a powerful monarch. This is much in line with Bodin's reasoning in France at the same time.

Written inLaw French with some Latin, and with extended passages entirely in English in the section on “forrest” law; printed in black letter.

Provenance: Contemporary inked signatures to fly-leaf of Henry Wynn/Wine (Middle Temple?).

•  ESTC S109077; STC (2nd ed.) 6050; Lowndes, I, 558.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. Pinhole or small worming throughout to top margins, touching a few letters in headings; light waterstaining to margins/corners of first/last leaves; one preliminary with just a very little bug-spotting. Paper flaws in margins of ff. 45, 164, and 172; last leaf a little tattered. Overall, very good. (21344)

By Fr. “Double Leaf/Fixed Star”

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•  Contained here are a critical examination of some philological works on New World languages by Schoolcraft and Duponceau, a study of the principles of the grammatical structures of Algonquian and Iroquois, and finally comparative lexicons of the Algonquian and Iroquoian languages based on McKensie, Duponceau, Schoolcraft, Catlin, and others. The initials N.O., adopted by Father Cuoq and appearing upon the title-pages of a number of his works, are the first letters of the names given him by the Indians among whom he lived — the first, Nij-kwe-natc-anibic, being a Nipissing name meaning the beautiful double leaf; the second, Orakwanentakon, a Mohawk name meaning a fixed star.

Father Cuoq (1821–98) was an extremely accomplished linguist as evidenced by his becoming fluent in both Algonquin and Iroquois; Field (Indian Bibliography, p. 93) writes glowingly of his mastery of these languages. His life as a missionary of the Order of Sulpitians, notably among the Nipissing at Lake of Two Mountains, certainly aided in his scholarly achievement.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 100-101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 952; Field 391; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Algonkin-14; Sabin 17980. Not in Banks; not in Evans, Masinanhikan. Original printed green wrappers, spine reinforced some time ago, edges chipped. Half-title with pencilled annotations. First text page rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages otherwise clean.

Unusual FRENCH History — Luxuriously Bound by CLOSS

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•  Sole edition: Assorted documents touching on various interesting episodes in the history of France, including memoirs, essays, biographies, and personal accounts. The first volume begins with the “Procès criminel, fait au cadavre de frère Jacques Clément, jacobin” (an account of the posthumous trial of the French Dominican monk who assassinated Henry III of France and was immediately killed himself, the trial culminating in Clément's body being quartered and burned), while the second volume includes a “Trait curieux, sur la Pucelle d'Orleans,” addressing Pere Vignier's opinion that Joan of Arc was not in fact executed.

Uncommon.  OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only nine U.S. holdings.

Binding:  Signed by Closs: 19th- or early 20th-century crimson morocco, spines with gilt-stamped titles and publication information, board edges with gilt double fillets, gilt inner dentelles. All edges marbled under gilt.

•  Pichon, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de feu M. le baron Jérôme Pichon, 4028.   Bound as above, a very little rubbed, vol. II with matching small nicks to fore-edges of covers. Front pastedown of vol. I with armorial bookplate; that flyleaf with inked inscription dated 1911, noting that this work is not found in Barbier. Scattered light spotting, pages almost entirely clean. A charming set.  (24640)

TO Part IV . . .

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