La comédie des comédies

12mo of (1) blank leaf, (3) leaves, 198 pp.

Red morocco, gilt garland around the covers, gilt-stamped arms at center, spine with raised bands finely decorated in gilt, decorated edges, inner gilt roll, red edges. Contemporary binding executed around 1690 for King Louis XIV.

161 x 96 mm.

Extremely rare first edition of "La Comédie des Comédies", a violent satire against Guez de Balzac (1597-1654), which enjoyed great success among the elite of the Ancien Régime.

Superb copy bound in red morocco with the arms of King Louis XIV.

From the library of the writer protected by Madame de Pompadour, Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792).

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Du Peschier, Louis. [Barry, René]. La comédie des comédies, translated from Italian into the language of the Orator François by Sieur du Pechier.

Paris, Nicolas La Coste, for the Author, 1629.

Rare first edition of this powerful satire against Guez de Balzac, praised by the greats of the Kingdom.

Goujet, I, 353-357, II, 251-252; Cioranescu, 10138.

Precious and superb copy bound in red morocco with the arms of King Louis XIV, later included in the library of author Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792), protégé of Madame de Pompadour.

"First edition, rare, of this comedy which caused a scandal and became all the more popular for it, as it was a satire against Balzac, whose most bombastic phrases Du Peschier borrows to ridicule. Accordingly, there is no need to look for an Italian original that never existed. "This play," says the author, "naively represents a story that happened some time ago among some rather remarkable people..." There is a counterfeit of this edition: Paris, jouxte la copie, 1629, in-8 of 36 pp."

(Catalogue de la Bibliothèque Dramatique de Monsieur de Soleinne, Paris, 1843).

Soleinne's copy was bound in calf with Madame de Pompadour's arms and the edition was already described as "rare" in 1843.

"The brilliant success of the Letters of Monsieur de Balzac (1624), expanded and arranged in four books under the title of works (1627) and placed under Richelieu's patronage, caused a violent quarrel accusing him of plagiarism and foolishness and labeling his style as "extravagant." A spirited cavalier, Balzac indeed pays homage to "heroic virtue"; "orator"; "epistolary," he makes of these letters addressed to the worldly elite a political plea tailored to Richelieu's objectives, the novel of a "conversion" reconciling Augustinian thought with political realism, a "comic novel" where the satirical vein also has room for the pastoral. Descartes congratulated him on the generous freedom "he shows in his judgments about the great and about himself," and also for having joined "the strength and majesty of the ancients with the elegance and ornament of the moderns." The Apologie pour Monsieur de Balzac (1627), in which one can recognize, behind F. Ogier, the hand of Balzac himself, relies on theorists of ancient rhetoric to justify his claims and define a worldly humanism concerned with purity, rhythm, and harmony, combining "grace and sweetness" with majesty and strength, and highlighting "a good man who knows how to speak well."

This original edition was sought after under the Ancien Régime and Madame de Pompadour had her copy bound with her coat of arms.

In the 18th century, this copy became the property of the writer Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792); it bears his handwritten ex libris.

A French poet and librettist, Favart began with a style inspired by Virgil, then wrote comedies and parodies mingled with vaudevilles, such as Les Jumelles and La Chercheuse d'esprit, performed in 1734 and 1741. Among his librettos are Bastien et Bastienne (1753), later set to music by Mozart; Les Trois Sultanes, set to music by Gibert in 1761, for which, in 1777, Haydn wrote incidental music that gave rise to his Symphony No. 63 (La Roxolane); Annette et Lubin. After following Marshal Saxe's armies, he was appointed, thanks to the favor of the Marquise de Pompadour, director of the Opéra-Comique in 1757.

No copy has been recorded on the public market since the beginning of available records, more than 35 years ago (ABPC).