Gatien de COURTILZ DE SANDRAS

Clandestine edition, probably printed in Holland. An engraved title by Choffart repeated in all 5 volumes. A fine edition whose interest lies in bringing together an important collection of gallant novels from the court of Louis XIV, the Histoire amoureuse des Gaules usually occupying only one volume. The 4 other volumes thus contain a little more than 15 other novellas or small gallant novels, some by Courtilz de Sandras, others remaining anonymous. The whole constitutes an important sum of this literature linked to the century of Louis XIV.
Contemporary full marbled brown calf binding. Smooth spine decorated in grotesque style with a scattering of stars. A crack to the upper joint of volume I at head. Small lacks at head of volume II. In volume IV one signature sprung, several leaves in volume I. P.15, lack to outer margin not touching text. Scattered pale foxing. 18th-century pen ownership inscription in the margin of title pages: Froment.
Details of the volumes: Volume I: Lettre au Duc de Saint-Aignan (of 12 November 1665), Histoire amoureuse des Gaules (contains all the usual texts, Histoire de Madame de Sevigny (i.e. Sévigné), Histoire des amours de Madame de Monglas, les Maximes d'amour). One also finds at the end the translation of Martial's epigrams by Bussy-Rabutin. Volume II: « Le Palais Royal ou les amours de Madame de La Valière et autres. », « La déroute et l'adieu des filles de joie de la ville & faubourgs de Paris, etc, et la requête de Me de La Valière. », « La Princesse ou les amours de Madame. », « Junonie ou les amours de Madame de Bagneux. », « Les fausses prudes ou les amour de Madame de Brancas, et autres dames de la cour. », « Les vieilles amoureuses ». Volume III: « Les amours de la Maréchale de La Ferté. », « La France galante ou les amours de Madame de Montespan, etc. », « Le perroquet ou les amours de Mademoiselle. ». Volume IV: « Le Passe-temps royal ou les amours de Mademoiselle de Fontange. », « Suite de la France galante ou les amours de Madame de Maintenon, sur de nouveaux mémoires très-curieux. », « Le divorce royal ou guerre civile dans la famille du Grand Alcandre. ». Volume V: « La France devenue italienne avec les derniers dérèglements de la cour. », « Amours de Monseigneur le Dauphin, avec la Comtesse du Rourre. »

The rare first edition, long attributed to Madame de La Fayette, and published the same year as La Princesse de Clèves, then to Courtilz de Sandras and even to Pierre Daniel Huet.
Late nineteenth-century full morocco binding signed Bellevallée glazed old red. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Wide gilt inner border. Date at foot. Very fine copy, perfectly established, with wide margins, and unwashed.
Unlike La Princesse de Clèves, or La Princesse de Montpensier, the Mémoires de Hollande is not a historical novella, but presents itself as a novel of manners that uses modern first names. The work describes, through the love affair between a Jewish woman and a Lusignan, life in the Netherlands around the mid-seventeenth century; it is one of the few novels daring to confront reality as it is, and the work deserves to be distinguished in the invention of French romantic literature on this account. The book is of interest for the history and topography of the Netherlands. It should be noted that this work was found in the greatest amateur libraries of the nineteenth century. (Lignerolles, Rochebilière, Rothschild, Téchener, etc.)