Curiosities

New edition, after the original published in 1627 under the title: De proxeneta seu De prudentia civili. One frontispiece title.
Copy with the cipher and arms of the Duke and Duchess of Montausier.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding. Spine decorated with the crowned cipher of the Duke and Duchess of Montausier (repeated 3 times in each compartment). Brown sheep title label. Boards stamped with arms and ciphers in the corners and triple fillet frame. Red edges. Paper browned. Skilful and fine restorations to headcaps, joints and corners. Gilding faded in places. Good copy.
Major figure of the 17th century, Charles de Sainte-Maure was made Duke of Montausier and Peer of France in 1664, and received the appointment as tutor to the Dauphin in 1668. His marriage to the great précieuse of the time, she who was called the incomparable Julie, Julie d'Angennes, was one of the great affairs of his life. It was for her that he composed La guirlande de Julie, a collection of 62 madrigals composed by the most illustrious poets of the time including himself. The Duke of Montausier was finally the model for Molière's Misanthrope, which is still today one of his claims to fame. As for the Duchess, she was portrayed by Madeleine de Scudery in her novel: Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus. They both constitute eminent symbols of the century of Louis XIV.
Jérôme Cardan (or Girolamo Cardana) is one of the great Italian humanists of the Renaissance. His work, Arcana politica (The Science of the World or Civil Wisdom), appeared posthumously, was very successful and went through several editions.

First edition, one of 50 copies printed anonymously on papier japon.
First edition, one of 50 copies printed anonymously on papier japon.
Illustrated with an erotic frontispiece by Félicien Rops on chine.
Custom chemise and slipcase in half morocco and paper boards signed Boichot, some discreet restorations to the spine and covers, some discreet restorations to the top margin of the frontispiece, not affecting the engraving.
“La Présidente”, honorary nickname given to Apollonie Sabatier (alias Aglaëe Savatier, her real name), was one of the most captivating Salon hostesses of the 19th century. She inspired an ethereal love in Baudelaire who composed his most mystical poems in Les Fleurs du Mal in her honor. The other artists who frequented the apartment on Rue Frochot, during her famous Sunday dinners, had more licentious feelings for this woman of surprising wit and beauty. The sculptor Clésinger portrayed her in his lascivious “woman stung by a snake”; Flaubert wrote sensual letters to her ending with “the very sincere affection of one who, alas, only kisses your hand”; she has long since been recognized as the model for Gustave Courbet's scandalous The Origin of the World.
Gautier sent her this letter in 1850. Sabatier made copies which she never published but privately distributed to her guests:
“In October 1850, Gautier sent her [this] very long letter, farcical and obscene, from Rome, commenting with Rabelaisian exaggeration what himself and his friend Cormenin had learned regarding sexuality during their travels. Gautier knew that his freedom of expression would not offend Madame Sabatier. He had long since accustomed her to it and he prided himself on his “smut” to brighten up the friendly social gatherings of the Rue Frochot.” (Dictionnaire des œuvres érotiques)
Honored indeed by this priapic attention, ‘La Présidente' gave copies to all her guests and the reading of Gautier's “indecent prose” became a popular event at Parisian soirées. However, the letter was ultimately published – luxuriously but confidentially – after the recipient's death in 1890.
After this first edition of 50 copies on papier japon, a second edition on papier vélin followed a few months later with a larger print run and without the Rops frontispiece.
A rare, beautiful and very sought after copy.

First edition. This pamphlet contains no editorial information, an understandable absence in these times of repression.

Modern Bradel cardboard binding. Smooth spine with a long burgundy shagreen title-label. lacks to head. Joints rubbed. The cardboard is covered with a reproduction of a naive engraving in the style of chapbook editions, with a caption: Louis XVIII Le Désiré, King of France and Navarre, praying for his brother.
Bookplate, circa 1920 with the letter R on a floral background. A facsimile of the account of the king's death referenced in the text has been pasted onto the endpapers.
Testimony on the events that preceded Louis XVI's execution, his conduct, his requests, etc. Anecdote about his farewell to Malesherbes, the day before.

The rare first edition. The letter to the king is preceded by his coat of arms which occupies the facing page. Royal armorial vignette on title.

Contemporary limp vellum binding. Unlettered smooth spine. Good copy.

Curious collection of letters that the author addressed to great figures in order to obtain favors and gratifications from them. Printed without signatures or pagination so as to be able to change the order of the letters and offer the dedication to each of the persons in the letters. 35 letters compose the collection, this one seeming to have been composed for the king, followed by the queen, the prince, and the Dukes.

Collection of documents formed of 33 original contemporary silver halide print photographs, a reproduction of a press clipping from La Voix du Nord and three mimeographed technical plans, united in a black binder with a label with the inscription «Production Report «press» – press-forming of the ½ spheres of Ct Cousteau's diving saucer – February 1964.» Handwritten title page.
Signed, handwritten presentation: «Avec les amitiés du reporter photographe Wallemme Raoul» «With love from the photojournalist Wallemme Raoul.»
Very beautiful and unique collection, testifying to the genius of the making of the Deep Star 4000, a diving saucer invented by Commander Cousteau.
The reproduction of the press clipping glued at the beginning of our collection explains: «The French Office for Underwater Research in Marseille will build, on behalf of an American firm, a diving saucer, the ‘S.P. 4000,' which can descend to a depth of 4000 metres. This machine, whose full-scale model has just been produced, must be completed in May 1964. It will be able to carry out its first trials the following month, before leaving for the United States where
it take the name ‘Deep Star.'»
In 1964, the French Office for Underwater Research, led by Commander Cousteau, entrusted the company Arbel de Douai with the work of forming the hemispheres in Vasco Jet 90 steel intended for the manufacture of the diving saucer «S.P. 4000.» The 33 photographs collected in this album of internal archives recount all the stages of this conception. We see the metalworkers at work, dressed in suits worthy of science-fiction; the last shot immortalised the team posing proudly in front of photojournalist Raoul Wallemme's camera.
It is the American company Westinghouse Corp who, under Cousteau's leadership and the French Office for Underwater Research, will manufacture the submersible. For certification purposes, the Vasco sphere manufactured by the Douai workshops will not be used by the American firm, who will prefer another model used by the US Navy. It will finally be used on another machine, the S.P. 3000 or Cyana. «In September 1971, a trial dive, luckily without crew, went wrong. Cyana, hanging on a cable and weighted with a heavy weight, is submersed off Sicily to a depth of 3 200m. A shackle opens, releasing the cable. The saucer remains unable to move, a few metres from the bottom. The sinking point is immediately marked by an ultrasonic beacon that can only beep for one month. A race against the clock begins: it is necessary to rearm the Archimède and urgently equip it with shears inspired by a charcutier's ham slicer! Fourteen days after the sinking, while the beacon still emits weakly, the Archimède finds the Cyana and cuts the cable that holds it prisoner. It was the deepest ever successful rescue!» (Ifremer website).
The Cyana carried out more than 1 300 dives from Ifremer's different oceanographic vessels (Jean Charcot, Le Suroît, Le Noroît, Nadir, L'Atalante) and opportunity vessels (Castor, Ravello).
Superb and unique testimony of French metalworking know-how at the service of Commander Cousteau and the pioneers of oceanography.

First French edition, translated by Joncourt.

Later binding ca. 1790 in full blonde sheep with raised grain. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons. Black sheep title label. Some rubbing. 2 corners slightly bumped. Good copy.
Manuscript gift inscription: "J'appartiens à Collins d'Anglus au collège à Mazarin à Paris, 1770."
Work presented to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and published as a response to Hume's essay on population. Based on computational hypotheses about births and deaths, the author establishes approximate population figures from the biblical primitive couple through Antiquity. Drawing from known sources and historians, Wallace seeks to establish Jewish, Egyptian... populations and concludes that demographics were more significant in Antiquity. An interesting and curious essay, which forms one of the first major speculations on world population evolution, and which would influence Malthus and demographic studies in France.

Exceptionally rare autograph satirical poem by Louis Aragon, entitled Distiques pour une Carmagnole de la Honte, written between September 1944 and February 1945. 26 lines penned in black ink on a single leaf, with a note from the author in blue ink at the foot of the page.
Our manuscript belongs to a group of thirteen poems composed during the first half of 1945, intended for publication in a poetry anthology (Aragon, published by Pierre Seghers in Paris, Collection “Poètes d’aujourd’hui” no. 2, 20 July 1945). It was sent by Aragon as a working copy to his editor and friend Claude Roy. This autograph poem is the only known manuscript of the Distiques, with neither manuscript nor proofs held in the extensive Triolet-Aragon archives at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

First edition, rare. This is the second book devoted by the author to this subject. Manuscript bibliographical note on the endpaper, in black ink, by F. Annibal Destouches, 1834.
Half glazed camel calf binding. Spine with false raised bands decorated with fleurons. Long-grain morocco boards with gilt roll border.
Contemporary full brown sheep binding, speckled. Decorated spine with raised bands. Gilt title. Small lack at head. Tailcap partly worn. Upper joint cracked at head and foot over 7 cm. Corners bumped.

First edition.
Full vellum binding with flaps, reused circa 1920. Smooth spine. Title calligraphed in red and black. Manuscript writing on covers, probably late 18th century. Bound on uncut wrappers, as issued. Worming to title page.
Autobiographical memoirs of a louse, which passing from head to head, embellishing its confessions with philosophical reflections, finds itself on the queen's head, then on that of Benjamin Franklin. It is essentially a political satire of affairs between France and the United States, featuring fictional dialogues, notably between the Minister of the Navy and Benjamin Franklin. It reveals a grand project consisting of seizing England to share it between France, Spain and the United States. This curiosity was written after Benjamin Franklin's delegation to France in 1778, mandated by the American Congress; it was on this occasion that Louis XVI signed the treaty recognizing the independence of the United States as a nation, and that England signed the independence of the thirteen colonies.
20th-century engraved bookplate with the motto Nec ridendo vellicat.

The first edition was published in 1565, also in Venice. Printer's device on the title page. Printed in italics.
Full speckled brown paper boards, early 19th century. Red morocco title label. Fillets. Rubbing to headcaps and boards.

Third and best edition of this apology for polygamy, the first dated from 1674 and comprised 96 p., the second was expanded in 1676 to 174 p., this final edition making 565 p. Most major libraries do not possess it, such as the BNF. Graesse, I, 68. Rare.

Contemporary full vellum binding, title in manuscript. Joint cracked at head.

Lyser (1631-1684) devoted his life and fortune in the hope of founding a sect of polygamists, he thus visited Europe, seeking followers and preaching that polygamy is most often a requirement. The book was condemned and numerous copies were burned.