Description

Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1870. 220 by 130mm (8¾ by 5 inches). Original half-tan calf over marbled boards; [4], 174, [2]pp. Marbled board pattern continues on the lovely endpapers. There is a limitation notice that states that there have been 15 copies printed on “papier de Chine” and 15 on Whatman paper. Our copy appears to be printed on Whatman – making it one of only 30 copies produced in high quality. In French. With an engraved portrait frontispiece of Rabelais.

Very good. Some light bumping and wear to boards; repair to minor tear of flyleaf; flyleaf starting to separate; unclear whether interleaving tissue after frontispiece is missing. It all sounds worse than it is, overall quite a nice copy of a well-produced book.

French author Noel Eugène (1816-1899) wrote this retrospective on 3 centuries of Francois Rabelais (ca. 1483- ca. 1553). Rabelais was a monk turned French Renaissance writer, physician and Greek scholar, especially known for his robust (and at times downright bawdy and naughty) sense of humor. This book is a broad survey of his influence along with an analysis of some his poetry.

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