Thoughts and Aphorisms

First edition.
Plain paper cover. Rare.

First edition? A similar edition was published on the same date by the same publisher, but in a slightly larger format, with different collation, different title ornament and without the red and black title page. This edition may be a piracy. A frontispiece depicting Harlequin. Uncommon.
Half vellum binding, later. Smooth spine with title in red ink.
Arlequiniana, which remains a literary curiosity, belongs to a predominant genre of French literature, emerging at the end of the 17th century and flourishing in the first half of the 18th century; these collections of witticisms or amusing stories or Ana whose birth can be traced to the Menagiana in 1693. This genre has the particularity of featuring its own author and dialoguing with its reader, seeming to have no other purpose than to entertain while seeking to educate, for in this century of censorship, literature created this apparently light but satirical and critical mode of society and morals. Charles Cotolondi wrote several works in this field, notably the Evremonmania. Harlequin, thanks to the famous Théâtre de la Foire in Paris had become very famous and represented a type, and it is by design that Cotolondi makes him a kind of wise fool, in the manner of a Scapin for Molière. The whole is a series of conversations, mixing tales and witticisms.
A very caustic table of contents allows one to find all the subjects treated: death, Cardinal Mazarin, the prudence of husbands or M. Lully.

Second edition.
Bradel binding in half bronze cloth, smooth spine decorated with gilt floral motif, double gilt fillet at foot, red shagreen title label, marbled paper boards, small marginal stains on boards, top edge gilt.
Some light foxing.
Rare.

First edition, one of 32 numbered copies on alfa paper, the only deluxe copies.
Handsome copy complete with its illustrated dust jacket.

Second edition.
Contemporary half cloth. Bluish paper boards. Title label, with lack. Corners slightly bumped.
Ex exergue: this work has been adopted for rhetoric and humanities classes by the public instruction commission. Decree of November 13, 1818.

Second edition revised and enlarged.
Curious autograph inscription signed by the author.
Lacking at head and foot of spine, joints partly cracked, some lacks affecting the cover boards, interior fresh. Very rare.

First edition.
The frontispiece portrait, first endpaper and half-title page are lacking from our copy which is presented in its original wrappers.
Occasional light foxing.

First edition printed in a small number of copies on laid paper.
Occasional light foxing, a marginal tear at head of second board discreetly repaired with tape.
Rare.

First edition, one of 400 numbered copies on offset vellum, the only printing along with 10 on Rives vellum.
Fine autograph inscription from Philippe Dumaine to André Schuck.

First edition.
Materialist conception of astrology, phatic engrams, Cassandra complex, astro-human radiation, universal telepathy...
Handsome copy, rare.

Reissue for 'De l'égalité' and first edition for 'Aphorismes.
Half brown sheep binding, smooth spine decorated with gilt floral motifs, burgundy sheep boards decorated with the same motifs as on the spine.
Handsome and rare copy.

First edition published anonymously.
Broken spine with a lack at foot, significant tear to back cover, copy free from foxing.

First edition. Uncommon. One copy at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (and a reprint from 1730) and another at Oxford. Absent from the British Library and French catalogues.
Late 18th-century full pasteboard binding. Red morocco title label. Upper and lower joints cracked 5 cm on lower board. The upper corner in right margin of title page has been torn away without loss of text. Title page of second volume missing. Pages 1 to 12, the upper corner of each page has been torn away with occasional loss of a few letters. A hole in the middle of the last page of the table of contents. The beginning of the fourth part is annotated, certain paragraphs are crossed out, some lines deleted. Leaf 35 detached.
The work is a collection of thoughts on all sorts of matters, on drunkenness, brunettes, tea, hunting, celibacy, riches, a kind of entertaining, original and free counterpart to the edifying and moral collections of thoughts that circulated at the same time.

First edition, published in a small number of copies.
Autograph inscription by Jean Lehon.
Beautiful illustrated cover, a rare and handsome copy.

First edition.
Occasional foxing.
Rare.

Second edition with some parts in first edition, collected and arranged by P. Raynal.
Copy virtually free from any foxing.