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a set of four antique books sitting on top of each otheran old book with a black and white title on it
ALDE

52 - MOUHY (Charles de Fieux de). *Lamekis, or the Extraordinary …
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Estimate €400 - €500
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Description
MOUHY (Charles de Fieux de). *Lamekis, or the Extraordinary Journeys of an Egyptian into the Interior, with the Discovery of the Isle of the Sylphs*. Paris: Poilly, Louis Dupuis; [The Hague, Neaulme], 1736–[1738]. 8 parts in 4 volumes, 12mo, speckled calfskin, triple gilt rule, coat of arms in centre, spine decorated with a repeated heraldic alerion, speckled edges (contemporary binding). A composite copy of the first and second editions, with Part 2 addressed to Louis Dupuis in 1736, the first, third and fourth parts published by Poilly in 1737, and the final four parts by Neaulme, in The Hague, in 1738. This ‘fantastic novel, verging on fairy-tale ’ (Hartig), but also of utopia, remains very little known, even though it is ‘the most extraordinary, the most bewildering of extraordinary journeys, an “extraordinarily elaborate” work of fiction, as the author puts it, and the height of exoticism’ (Robert Valette). ‘The Chevalier de Mouhy (1701–1784) is the author of an astonishing novel set both underground and in the skies, which is a distant forerunner of certain works by Merritt or Lovecraft. [...] An Egyptian living in the time of Semiramis, Lamékis, was taken in at the age of ten by a people of blue men. The son of the prince of this people, having descended into an abyss with his mother, lives underground with Lamékis and discovers there a civilisation of worm-men. As the latter recounts this adventure to a certain Sinouis, they are abducted by Sylphs who take them to their aerial island...’ (Versins). A copy bearing the coat of arms of Anne-Léon II de Montmorency (1731–1799), Marquis of Fosseux and later Duke of Montmorency, hereditary Constable of Normandy, field marshal of the King’s armies in 1762, having served during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War. From the library of Sosthène II de La Rochefoucauld (1825–1908), Duke of Bisaccia (by inheritance from the Montmorency-Laval family), later Duke of Doudeauville, with bookplates. The titles of the first four parts have been bound at the front of the four volumes; as for the titles of the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th parts, they were removed by the bookbinder and are missing, as is the final leaf containing the catalogue of the author’s works. Corners slightly worn, minor flaws to the bindings, a few scattered foxing spots. Hartig, p. 47 – Versins, p. 323 – Libr. Valette, ‘Utopies’ catalogue, 1971, no. 234 – OHR, 810/2.
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About the sale Antique books – Alchemy & the occult sciences
Auction location
Auction time 11/04/2026 at 2:00 PM
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ALDE
See original version (French)
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