
BOOKS IN FRENCH
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Scandalous Secrets
Taxil, Léo. Les livres secrets des confesseurs dévoilés aux pères de famille. Paris: Librairie anti-cléricale, [1884]. 8vo. 680, [2] pp., illus., ports.
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition. Taxil (18541907) was an ardent (to be mild about it) anti-cleric and anti-Catholic and in this work from his Librairie anti-cléricale press, issued in 43 parts (i.e., “livraisons“), he satirically attacks the act of Confession, the sexual ethics of Confessors, and the conduct of life in France among clerics and Catholics in general at end of the 19th century. The work is illustrated with full-page caricatures of noted confessors. “Cette édition scrupuleusement conforme aux textes originaux des traités de luxure en usage dans les séminaires est faite par les soins de M. Léo Taxil.” Taxil's real name seems to have been Gabriel Jogand-Pages, and he is often described as a con-man; some say his book store was sordid and published obscene and blasphemous
books. What is certain is that most of his numerous publications sold like hot cakes and have a poor survival rate. This one signaled its equivocal contents quite openly to those who knew the code, with its title-page references to “secret” books and “luxurious” habits; that it promised to “unveil” these things to men only, the fathers of families, surely gave potential buyers the additional pleasant frisson of understanding that what they were about to enjoy learning would remain in some ways their secret/special knowledge.
Not all content is sexual exposé the anti-Catholic/clerical impulse is as real as the pornographic one but substantial sections cover pretty much “toutes les questions matrimoniales,” while others speak of masturbators, the violation of virgins, and incest. The workings of female anatomy are of interest simply as such; the volume therefore has considerable medical interest, with a long section (for example) on “l'opération césarienne.
Contemporary quarter brown morocco. Ex-library: call number tag on spine, bookplate on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page. (21084)
(Textbook Military Science). The journal of the Battle of Fontenoy: As it was drawn up, and published by order of His Most Christian Majesty. Translated from the French. London: M. Cooper, 1745. Folio (30.6 cm, 12"). 8 pp.
$600.00
A report, in official form, of the French victory at Fontenoy
over the British during the War of the Austrian Succession. Fontenoy was a
set-piece battle, and a standard object of study for military science in the
18th century.
This work is rare: A search of ESTC, NUC Pre-1946, RLIN, and OCLC revealed
only
one
copy.
ESTC T13180. In recent marbled wrappers. Uncut copy: some
soiling and deckle edges with some chipping with loss of part of a letter in
one place. Paper lightly age-toned. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library,
including one on title-page.
For
more of MILITARY/NAVAL interest, click
here.
Tissot, Simon André David. Essai sur les maladies des gens du monde. Lausanne: Chez François Grasset & Comp., 1770. 8vo (17.2 cm, 6.75"). xiv, 212, [4] pp.
$500.00
First edition: Guide to maintaining good health, with preliminary chapters on food and drink, exercise, and sleep preceding the discussion of various disorders and diseases suffered by sophisticated, upper-class men and women. The Swiss physician Simon-André (sometimes given as Samuel Auguste) David Tissot published a number of medical works, some being specialized studies and others intended for laypeople; although his treatise on the evils of masturbation was then and may still be his best-known work, almost all of his books went through a number of printings in assorted translations, and the present work is no exception.
Single-click the interior image for an enlargement.
The publisher’s authentifying signature is present on the final leaf, the “Avis des Éditeurs.”
Not in Garrison & Morton. 19th-century quarter cloth with paper-covered sides, spine with inked paper label; spine sunned and with call number label, edges and sides slightly rubbed. Original front pastedown and free endpaper bound in, endpaper with inked presentation inscription dated 1865. Title-page and first page of preface rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages clean.
Valois, Adrien de. Valesiana ou les pensées critiques, historiques et morales, et les poesies latines .... Paris: Chez Florentin & Pierre Delaulne,
1695. 12mo (15.5 cm, 6.2"). Frontis., [30], 234, [10], 88 pp.; 2 fold. plts.
$250.00

Early, pirated edition, following the first of 1694: Critical and literary extracts from the writings of a prominent historian and scholar of the Middle Ages (also known as Hadrianus Valesius), the brother of equally distinguished
scholar Henri de Valois. The collection was edited by the author’s son, numismatist Charles de Valois.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The present example is a fictitious imprint, printed in Amsterdam and counterfeiting the Parisian edition of the same year (actual place of printing from NUC Pre-1956 628:472, cf. E. Weller, Die falschen und fingierten Druckorte, II, 57). The volume’s two folding, engraved plates (unsigned) depict antiquarian coins and medals, while the mythologically inspired frontispiece includes a portrait of de Valois.
Later half sheep with speckled paper–covered boards, rebacked with speckled calf preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; sides and edges scuffed, with leather chipped at corners. Front pastedown with 19th-century
private collector’s bookplate, partially chipped; preface with numeral inked in lower margin. Pages crisp and clean. All edges stained red.
Venanson, Flaminius. De l’invention de la boussole nautique. Naples: Chez Ange Trani, 1808. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.9"). 172 pp.
$750.00
Sole edition: History of
the nautical compass, in which the author attempts to assign credit for the invention of that device not to ancient Chinese or Arabic minds but rather to marine pilot Flavio Gioia d’Amalfi, with much accompanying praise of the “supériorité maritime” of the medieval Italians.
Scarce: OCLC, RLIN, and NUC-Pre1956 locate only six U.S. holdings.
Brunet, V, 1118. Contemporary limp paste paper–covered wrappers, spine with hand-inked label; paper chipped at edges and front joint open; spine label darkened and peeling. Front pastedown with bookseller’s ticket and institutional bookplate; front free endpaper and title-page with institutional stamp; front free endpaper with ownership inscriptions dated 1829. Pages untrimmed.

Mlle. Moore's Prize
Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick, Cardinal. Fabiola ou l'eglise des catacombes. Traduit de l'anglais par F. Fascal Marie. Paris, Leipzig, & Tournai: P.M. la Roche, L.A. Kittler, Vve. H. Casterman, 1870. 8vo.
$75.00
First edition in French was 1866. This edition illustrated with engraved plates. Complete with the facsimile letter.
Contemporary half morocco, abraded. All edges gilt. Cloth sides worn at tips, exposing boards. Some foxing. Prize inscription.
Zárate,
Agustin de. Histoire de la découverte et de la conquête du
Perou, traduite de l’Espagnol d’Augustin de Zarate, par S.D.C. Paris:
Par la compagnie des libraires, 1774. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1"). I: Frontis., xl, 360
pp.; 1 fold. map, 10 engr. plts., 2 fold. engr. plts. II: viii, 479, [1 (blank)]
pp.
$445.00
Classic
and standard work on the discovery, conquest, and subsequent civil war periods:
Sent to Peru to examine the financial status of the viceroyalty, the Spanish
treasury official Zárate made use of his visit to compile a history of
the conquest of the Incas and the early portion of the subsequent civil wars
among the Spanish conquerors. The work was originally published in 1555 and
in 1700 was translated into French by S. de Broë, seigneur de Citry
et de La Guette; this Paris printing of de Broë’s translation
is illustrated with numerous maps and engravings of scenes including a ritual
sacrifice.
Sabin 106266; Palau 379645. Volumes bound in paper wrappers,
back wrapper lacking in both cases; front wrappers reinforced with printed
papers taken from other items. Reverse of frontispiece in vol. I and front
pastedown in vol. II with small bookplates of private collector. Edges untrimmed.
Scattered spots; pages and plates generally in good clean condition.

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