Les jeux de l'inconnu

New and second edition, very rare, after the first of exceptional rarity published in 1630. A frontispiece by Daniel Rabel composed of 2 half-page figures.
Full marbled brown calf binding 18th century. Spine with raised bands decorated. Red morocco title label. Head split at headcap. Lacking at tail. Upper joint opened at tail and head. Lower joint cracked at head. 3 corners bumped. Uniform dampstain over 4/5 of the title page.
Collection of satirical and burlesque pieces, with baroque and erudite writing, sometimes very licentious to the point of ribaldry. The work is composed of 10 pieces for the first part including the famous Le moyne bourru, La missodrie, and 5 pieces for the second part, which remained more famous for Le Herti ou l'universel, Le discours du ris, Le discours du ridicule, La blanque, La maigre. The author mocks the customs and habits of his time, but also the sciences and knowledge, alchemy and superstitions, doing so either through learned discourses full of antiquities, or through romantic inventions.
Poet, novelist and dramatic author, Adrien de Montluc, Prince de Chabanais (1571-1646) was, under Louis XIII, one of those libertines and courtly gallants called the Intrépides: he remained twelve years prisoner in the Bastille and only left upon Richelieu's death. "Forerunner of modern letters, first to liberate words, he marked the pages with an ink that three centuries have not faded", according to the judgment of Illiazd, the poet-publisher who drew from this work two of the texts: Le Courtisan grotesque (illustrated by Picasso with 18 dry-points in 1952) and La Maigre (23 etchings by Miró).