Farces et Facéties populaires - Carême Prenant et Carnaval

8vo, red morocco, gilt fillet on covers with central design of a round medaillon decorated, decorated ribbed spine, giltedges. Binding signed Thouvenin, towards 1825.

151 x 93 mm.

Farces et Faceties populaires – Carême Prenant et Carnaval.
Procez et amples examinations sur la vie de Caresme-Prenant. Dans lesquels sont amplement descrites toues les tromperies, astuces, caprices, bisarreries, fantasies, brouillemens, inventions, subtilités, folies, débordemens & paillardises qu’il a commis & fait pratiquer en la présente année. Avec la Sentence, Mandement & Banissement général donnez & publiez contre luy, de l’Ordonnance & commission du Seigneur Caresme. Traduit d’Italien en françois.
Paris, 1605. 

Bound with the following 7 works:

Traicte de mariage entre Julian Peoger dit Janicot, & Jacqueline Papinet sa future Espouse. Lyon, 1611.

La Copie d’un bail et Ferme faicte par une jeune Dame… Paris, 1609.

La Raison Pourquoy les Femmes ne portent Barbe au Menton. Paris, 1601.

La Source du Gros Fessier des Nourrices… avec la complainte de Monsieur le cul contre les inventeus des vertugalles. Rouen. S. d.

La Source et origine des cons sauvages. Lyon, 1610.

La Grande et Veritable Pronostication des cons Sauvages, avec la manière de les aprivoiser, nouvellement imprimée par l’autorité de l’Abbé des Conars. S. l. n. d.

Sermon joyeux d’un dépucelleur de nourrices.

First collective edition of these 8 popular, free-spirited and humorous works printed in the mid-18^th century.

This edition was reprinted in 1830 in a run of thirty numbered copies, which also include a reprint of Dict des pays joyeux and a table of the nine plays. (Brunet).

“The first edition of 1605 is very rare; but there is a reprint bearing the same date, which is usually accompanied by the following works, also reprinted: A Treatise on Marriage by Julian Peoger. Lyon, 1611. A Copy of a Lease and Farming Agreement Made by a Young Lady… Paris, 1609. The Reason Why Women Do Not Grow Beards on Their Chins, Paris, 1601. The Source of Wet Nurses’ Large Buttocks… with the Complaint of Monsieur le Cul against the Inventors of Girdles, Rouen. The Source and Origin of Wild Cunts, Lyon, 1610. The Great and True Prediction of Wild Cunts, A Joyful Sermon by a Deflowerer of Wet Nurses, in-8. These eight pieces, collected together, are sought after because of the singularity of their titles: sold in March for 24 francs by Febvre and Méon, and up to 39 francs by Bonnier” (Brunet)

A free-spirited engraving has been added, in which a man and a woman are learnedly comparing their private parts.

Since time immemorial, and as far back as the Middle Ages, the carnival season has been marked by masquerades and popular festivals. Even at court, kings were swept up in the wave of madness that swept through these days of revelry; they, too, celebrated their “Carême-prenant.” This was the name given to the last three days of Carnival preceding Lent. For a long time, the people personified these two rival figures, Carême-prenant and Lent: the former a bringer of joy, a lover of parties, feasts, and drinking binges; the latter heralding a procession of lean and dreary days, where only abstinence was to reign, and where homage to Bacchus and Venus was forbidden.

Thus, the public, through street revelries, and the nobility, through tournaments, celebrated the days of indulgence without restraint before falling under the sad reign of Sir Lent. These festivities provided an opportunity for peddlers to sell certain burlesque and facetious booklets. In Paris and the provinces, small comic pamphlets were sold at the time, often depicting, in a heroic-comic style, the battle between Lent-Taker and Lent. Most of these small booklets have certainly been lost. The curiosity of bibliophiles throughout the ages has saved a number of them from oblivion. Their very abundance, from the 15th century to the present day, attests to the persistence of cheerfulness and the Gallic spirit in our people.

An elegant copy.

Provenance : Pierre Berès.