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113 - [SOREL (Charles). Les Nouvelles françoises, où se trouvent l…
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Estimate €1,500 - €2,000
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[SOREL (Charles). Les Nouvelles françoises, où se trouvent les divers effects de l'amour et de la fortune et dont voici les titres : Le Pauvre généreux, Les Mal mariez, La Sœur jalouse, Les Trois amants, La Recognoissance d'un fils. Paris, Pierre Billaine, 1623. In-8, fawn calf, coats of arms in the centre, spine decorated with alternate coats of arms, red title page, marbled edges (Early 18th century binding). Extremely rare first edition of this collection of five short stories, published without an author's name in the same year as the Histoire comique de Francion. The Nouvelles françoises by Charles Sorel (1582?-1674), inspired by Spanish short stories - and in particular the Nouvelles exemplaires by Cervantes, translated in 1615 - represent an important stage in the development of the genre: his short stories, which tell serious rather than merely amusing stories and are set in contemporary France (against the fashion for conventional settings), differ stylistically from both the medieval fabliaux, which are extremely brief, and the excessively long Baroque romances. In 1645, the author published a revised and expanded edition of this collection under the title Les Nouvelles choisies, containing various incidents of love and fortune. The USTC and CCFr list only three copies of this first edition in public collections (kept at the BnF, Lyon and Toulouse). A precious copy bearing the arms of the Countess de Verrue, one of the most illustrious bibliophiles of her time. Jeanne-Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes (1670-1736), Countess de Verrue by marriage, had a library in Paris, in her hotel on the rue du Cherche-Midi, where she held a very popular salon, and another in Meudon, her country residence. Her two libraries, totalling some eighteen thousand volumes, were dispersed six months after her death, in March and April 1737. Some of the books could not be included in the catalogue because of their licentious or anti-religious nature. The present work appears under no. 328 of the inventory of his books, p. 173 of the sale catalogue drawn up by Gabriel Martin in 1737. From the library of President Crozat (1751, no. 2670), with a handwritten bookplate on the verso of the title. Magistrate at the Parliament of Paris, Joseph-Antoine Crozat (1696-1751), Marquis de Tugny, was also a great art lover, whose collections, acquired thanks to Diderot by Catherine II of Russia, constitute the first collection of the Hermitage Museum. His library was dispersed in Paris in 1751. Handwritten inscription cut into the corner of the title, formerly lined (before Crozat wrote his name on the verso), scattered foxing and light spotting, headpieces and corners finely restored. Lever, 324 - Arbour, n°11203 - Cioranescu, n°63361 - M. Lever, Romanciers du Grand Siècle, 1996, p. 180 - Quentin-Bauchart, II, 417 - B. Mairé, "Les livres de la comtesse Verrue...", Revue de la BnF, 2002/12, p. 48.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
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Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
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