Les Colloques d'Erasme

First edition of Nicolas Gueudeville's translation, particularly sought after for its illustration with the first printing of 55 half-page figures, unsigned, in the style of Romain de Hooge or Harrewyn (Cohen, 347). A frontispiece by Schinove and a large vignette with the arms of Frederick of Gloucester, Prince of Hanover. Title pages in red and black.

Contemporary full speckled brown calf bindings. Decorated smooth spines. Red morocco title labels and tan morocco volume labels. Triple fillet frame on boards. Head caps partially missing on volumes III and IV, the others worn. Tail caps on volumes II, III, and VI worn. In volume VI, from p. 95 to 115, a folded corner. Despite the noted flaws, a handsome set, well bound.

Just like The Praise of Folly translated by Guedeville a little earlier, which met with such success that this was the title retained in France for Erasmus's work although it was the translator's, The Colloquies is a mixed work, not merely an adaptation like most 18th-century translations, but a recreation according to Guedeville's aims. The Colloquia Familiares or familiar conversations are a series of dialogues with very varied characters intended to represent the human comedy with a real didactic intention on the author's part: didacticism of language and morals. It is the entire society of the 16th century that parades through these dialogues with a watchword for the whole: the folly of men.
Aubrey Rosenberg and, most recently, Paul Smith have examined Gueudeville's style as a translator and its main characteristics: amplification, modernization, oralization. As a general rule, the translation is twice as long as the original, the additions consisting essentially of humorous touches and jokes that accentuate the banter, intended for a popular readership that does not necessarily read Latin. Allusions to current events are scattered here and there: the translator does not forget that he is also a journalist, and there would undoubtedly remain discoveries to be made if one wanted to scrutinize more precisely the political scope of certain choices. The modernization furthermore consists in the use of fashionable vocabulary, as well as the invention of pleasant neologisms. The insertion of oral turns of phrase such as interrogatives engaging the reader finally proceeds from Gueudeville's particular attention to the genre of texts he translates. He is thus sensitive to the theatricality implied by declamations. Similarly, from the preface of his Colloquies, he addresses his readers: "Voulez vous bien que nous approfondissions un peu la Matière ?" ["Would you like us to delve a little deeper into the Matter?"]. It nonetheless remains that the translator intends to be very respectful and faithful to Erasmus's work, as evidenced by the numerous preliminary pieces on the author, but he was above all concerned with amusing while instructing, in keeping with the spirit of his century, and the result seems to measure up as the philosophical and moralist matter of these dialogues is enhanced by a freshness of tone and banter for which Gueudeville is responsible.