La Taureau Bannal de Paris. by [SATIRICAL NOVEL.]

First Edition. 12mo (140 x 80 mm), pp. 160, woodcut title vignette depicting a sphere, old tear on title, reinforced by backing sheet covering 2/3 of the verso, adhesive taking in the gutter of A2, close to typographical vignette, some spotting and browning throughout, in contemporary calf-backed patterned boards, rather dusty, small red morocco label lettered in gilt, with the illustrated bookplates of A. Leher and Robert J. Hayhurst.

A scarce anonymous satirical novel set at the court of Louis XIV and telling of the intrigues and scandals of court life. In particular, the narrative is concerned with the adventures of the comte de Montrevel, the chevalier de Lorraine and the princesse de Monaco. The imprint is of course fictitious and it is thought to have been printed in Holland. Another edition followed under the title L’homme à bonne fortune, ou le galant à l’épreuve, 1691 and the work was also reprinted under the present title in 1712.

In addition to the BN and a handful of copies in Continental Europe, OCLC lists Cambridge, UCLA, Ohio State and Toronto.

Williams, Bibliography of the Seventeenth Century Novel in France, p. 237; Gay III, 1182.