Voyage de Figaro, en Espagne

An uncommon first edition (cf. Palau, 92 173. Barbier, IV, 1072. Quérard, II, 40. Cioranescu, XVIII, 28675-28678.)

Contemporary full marbled fawn calf, smooth spine decorated with double gilt panels and ornaments, hazelnut calf lettering-piece, spine caps defective, covers framed with a single blind fillet, marbled endpapers, corners rubbed, gilt fillets to the edges, red edges; a fragile contemporary binding: spine ends trimmed, joints and upper hinge entirely split.

The imprint is fictitious: the pamphlet was not printed at Saint-Malo.

This satire, directed against the government, religion and customs of the Spaniards, and marked by singular bad faith (Fleuriot never set foot in Spain), was condemned in France to be burnt by the public executioner by decree of the Parlement of Paris dated 26 February 1786, at the request of King Charles III. Emboldened by this success, Jean-Marie-Jérôme de Fleuriot (1749-1807) pursued his career as an anti-religious pamphleteer. The work went through six editions up to 1803 (the last recorded by the DLF, XVIIIe s., p.38) and was translated into four languages.