Les Etrennes de la Saint-Jean. by CAYLUS, Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières…

Les Etrennes de la Saint-Jean. by CAYLUS, Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières de Grimoard de Pestels de Lévis, comte de (1692-1765). < >
CAYLUS, Anne-Claude-Philippe de Tubières de Grimoard de Pestels de Lévis, comte de (1692-1765).

Les Etrennes de la Saint-Jean. Seconde Edition, Revûë, corrigée & augmentée par les Auteurs de plusieurs Morceaux d’esprit. Troyes, la Veuve Oudot [ie Paris, Duchesne], 1742.

First Edition, Large Paper Copy (satirically designated ‘Seconde Edition, Revûë, corrigée & augmentée’). 12mo, (175 x 100 mm), pp. xii, 264, frontispiece woodcut portrait of the printer, ‘Mr. ou Me. Oudot’ printed in blue with the caption and verse in black, title page and printed in blue and black, with the vignette of books, ‘Au Livre Bleu’, printed in blue; a large paper copy printed on papier vélin, in contemporary diced calf by Bozerian Jeune, single gilt fillet to covers with gilt garland of circles, spine gilt in compartments with simple tooling and rules, lettered in gilt, signed ‘Bozerian Jeune’ at the foot of the spine, marbled endpapers, paper shelf mark label, gilt edges: headcap and upper joints skillfully restored, some wear to extremities, from the library of Claude Lebédel.

A handsome copy in a Bozerian jeune binding of one of the few copies of Caylus’ jeu d’esprit to be printed on large paper. The frontispiece portrait, the ‘blue books’ vignette of the title page, the false imprint and the false edition statement are all part of an elaborate parody of the Bibliothèque bleue printed by Oudot in Troyes. A note on the verso of the frontispiece facetiously explains the inclusion of the portrait in a wonderful sentence rife with double meanings about counterfeit texts: ‘L’Imprimeur étant contrefait, il a jugé à propos de se faire graver, afin que son Livre ne soit pas de lui, quand il n’y sera pas’.
Another dig at the commercial success of the Oudot family is printed on the verso of the title-page, facing the preface: ‘L’attention que je me donne pour satisfaire le gré du Public, ne m’empêche point de penser à mes petits intérêts; c’est la raison pourquoi, pour satisfaire à la curiosité d’aucuns parmi les Curieux, on a tiré queuques [sic] Exemplaires sur de grand & gros papier; ça me coûte fort peu, & ça se vend un tiers de plus, c’est la maniere’.
These humorous works contain a variety of contes galantes, facetious anecdotes, short stories, little fictional vignettes, imaginary correspondence, short plays, poems and dialogues, with settings which take the reader from the fashionable east to the more disreputable parts of Paris. With the famous satirical frontispiece illustrating the printer, ‘Monsieur ou Madame Oudot’, here printed in blue. Also containing ‘Lettre Persanne d’un Monsieur de Paris, à un Gentilhomme Turc de ses Amis’ (pp. 21-28) and the reply ‘Reponse pour le Gentilhomme Turc, à la Lettre Persanne de Paris’ (pp. 28-32); ‘Dialogue en forme de Questions, sur le Mariage’ (pp. 37-45), ‘Le Ballet des Dindons’ (pp. 84-91), ‘Le Prince Bel-Esprit, & la Reine Toute-Belle’ (pp. 96-104) and the conte philosophique ‘Les Epreuves d’Amour dans les quatre Elémens, histoire nouvelle’, with its continuation (pp. 106-175). Written in collaboration with a number of Caylus’ friends, including Crébillon fils, Duclos, Vadé, Maurepas, Moncrif, Collé, Voisenon and the redoubtable bibliophile the Comtesse de Verrue. These were the key players in a literary société badine which centred around the actress and comedian Jeanne-Françoise Quinault. The society would meet for exuberant dinners during the course of which they would these tales and satirical pieces would be composed.

Cioranescu 16247; Cohen-de Ricci 209; Gay I 182; Jones p. 79.

Keywords: Continental Books
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