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OGER-BLANCHET

552 - SPELTA, Antonio Maria - La Sage-folie, fontaine d'allégresse…
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Estimate €300
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SPELTA, Antonio Maria - La Sage-folie, fontaine d'allégresse, mère des plaisirs, reyne des belles humeurs; pour la défense des personnes joviales, à la confusion des archi-sages & protomaistres; oeuvre morale, tres curieuse, & utile à toutes sortes de personnes - La Délectable folie, support des capricieux, soulas des fantasques, nourriture des bigearres, pour l'utilité des cerveau. Lyon, Claude Larjot, 1628. 2 vols. in-12, (12) ff. (front. included), 192 pp., (6) ff. ; (3) ff. 407 pp., (7) ff. lacking the front of the 2nd part, midnight blue morocco, triple gilt thread on covers, ribbed spine decorated with a small red mosaic, int. dent, gilt tr. (DAVID). BRUNET V, 485. BLANC II, 1487. First French edition of this work translated from Italian by Louys Garon and first published in 1606, republished in 1635 and 1650 (see Du Roure, Analecta Biblion II, 106). A eulogy of madness, but one that is nothing less than ironic in its foundation. Unlike Erasmus, for whom madness is a rhetorical device, a talkative figure denouncing the fallacious order in which we indulge, for Spelta it is consubstantial with our existence. It alone governs us and drives away from us the dull cares and bitter labours: it alone satisfies men and women; for otherwise they would always be miserable and unfortunate, if its sweetness did not temper the bitterness of this life, sometimes making us build castles in the air, and pile mountain upon mountain...'' (preface f. 9). This criticism leads to a kind of moral pragmatism in the second part: La Délectable Folie. The author, who makes a distinction between gentle madness and furious madness, shows himself to be a friend of poets: he quotes Ronsard and Du Bartas. Chapters devoted to the teaching of young children and grammar, to astrologers, nigromancers and alchemists. In chap. XXI, the Folie du Sage (Folly of the Wise Man) draws inspiration from the Scriptures to belittle the superbness of pedants.
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About the sale JEAN DEMAUX LIBRARY - DAY 2
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Auction time 06/19/2026 at 2:00 PM
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