Recently acquired rare and antiquarian materials

Acquisitions over the summer include works of interest to scholars whose expertise ranges from religious history to poison antidotes.  From France, we have texts that present a defense of Catholicism during the Reformation and a defense of printers during the Revolution.  Economic historians will find a discussion of how the office of the trésorier helped nobles to achieve greater wealth as well as the Abbé de Thorel's essay on how to abolish poverty.  Finally from Italy, we have the 17th-century Florentine pharmacist Piero Francesco Geraldini's shilling of powdered mineral bezoar, a purported cure for, among other ailments, poisoning.

French Materials

Achard, Marie. L'Orpheline du Choléra, simple récit en vers. 
Marseille, à la librairie de P. Chauffard, 1854. 16 pp.  

AMUSEMENS (Les) du Philosophe. A M. L. Mse. D. C.*** P. M. L. A. F. C. D. S. C.  S.l.n.d. (Rouen?, entre 1734 et 1749). 23 pp.  "Vous plaisez en tout et par-tout"  An extremely rare panegyric by the Marquise du Châtelet 

Anonymous, Le Trésorier de France, ou Mémoire contenant un précis historique de ce qui concerne cet office, une réfutation des écrits intitulés: Traité sur la jurisdiction des Trésoriers de France 1777 ... État véritable des Trésoriers de France 1779 ... et des réponses aux critiques anciennes et modernes que ces Magistrats ont essuyées. A Genève, 1780. [4], xv, [1], 172 p. 20 cm.

From the catalogue:  “First edition of this comprehensive history and defence of the office of trésorier de France, key agents of the crown in the Ancien Regime.  The office of trésorier, part of the financial administration, though not necessarily well-paid, and laborious and onerous to boot, was much coveted by the nobility, because of the connections and influence it afforded. . . .  [The author] gives a thorough overview of the office of trésorier, explains its function, its jurisdiction, and organisation.  He defends trésoriers against accusations of financial mismanagement or profiteering, and comments on the newly instituted controls by the financial administration.

 

Bardin, Pierre. Le Lycée, où en plusieurs promenades il est traité des Connoissances, des Actions, et des Plaisirs d'un Honneste homme.  A Paris, chez Jean Camusat, 1632-1634.

Cloots, Jean-Baptiste, dit Anacharsis. Discours prononcé à la barre de l'Assemblée Nationale, au nom des Imprimeurs, le 9 septembre 1792, l'an quatrième de la liberté, et le premier de l'égalité.  (Paris), (à la fin:) de l'Imprimerie Nationale, (1792). 11 pp.  

Doré, Pierre. Larbre de vie, appuyant les beaux lys de France, ou sont mis en lumiere les haults tiltres d’honneur de la croix de nostre redempteur Iesus … Avec les odes et co[m]plaintes du mesme autheur.  Paris, Vivant Gualtherot, 1542.  First edition.

Dedicated to François I, this work by the Dominican theologian Pierre Doré (c. 1500–1569) is an elaborate meditation on the cross as tree.  The author of numerous devotional treatises (often bearing long and somewhat fanciful titles), Doré sought to take on the Protestants on their own ground by writing in the vernacular. His works are not polemical, however, concentrating rather on the affirmation of the central beliefs of the Catholic faith than on the attempted demolition of those of the Protestants.

Fontette de Sommery, Mademoiselle. Lettres de Madame la Comtesse de L*** à monsieur le Comte de R***.  A Paris, chez Barrois l'aîné, 1785.

Goulard, Jean François Thomas. Florestan ou la Leçon, Comédie en deux actes, en prose et en vaudevilles. Représentée pour la première fois, à Paris, sur le théâtre du Vaudeville, le 19 vendémiaire, an VII.  A Paris, chez Fages, an VII. (1799). 

Grandor, ou le Héros Abissin, Histoire Héroï-Politique. A Trèves, et se trouve à Paris, chez les Marchands de Nouveautés, 1789. 

Liquier, André. Discours qui a remporté le prix de l'Académie de Marseille, en 1777, sur cette question: quelle a été dans tous les temps l'influence du Commerce sur l'Esprit et les Mœurs des Peuples?  A Amsterdam, et se trouve à Paris, chez Demonville, et à Marseille, chez Mossy, 1777. 

Poncelin, Albert. Projet pour la Fondation d'Ateliers Publics, ouverts à tous les Ouvriers sans ouvrage. Paris, chez Raymond Bocquet, 1841.
RELIE AVEC (en tête):  2). VILLEMAIN (Abel François). Tableau de l'Etat Actuel de l'Instruction Primaire en France, rapport présenté au Roi le 1er novembre 1841. Paris, Jules Renouard et Compagnie, s.d. (1841); 3). LA GUERRE! LA GUERRE! Les Véritables Capitaines. (à la fin:) Paris, C.H. Lambert, s.d. (c.1840); 4). FELICE (Guillaume de). La Voix du Colporteur Biblique. A Paris, chez Delay, à Toulouse, chez Tartanac, 1844.  4 ouvrages en 1 volume in-12. 1). 35pp. 2). 2ff. 128pp. 3). 12pp. 4). 280pp

Thorel, Jean-Baptiste, abbé de. Essai sur les moyens d'abolir la mendicité dans tous les pays. Tome premier. A Rouen : chez Le Boucher le jeune : (de l'Imprimerie de Veuve L. Dumesnil) ; et se trouve à Paris : chez Durand neveu, 1780.

Work programs for mendicants able to work are introduced, as is schooling for the children.  Overall Thorel attempts to alleviate the responsibility for the indigent by creating a social insurance system, which pays out to the ‘deserving poor’, i.e. those who work.

Italian Materials

Giraldini, Piero Francesco (fl. 1626, sometimes as Giraldini, Pierfrancesco). Discorso sopra la pietra Belzuar minerale di Pier Francesco Giraldini Bolognese.  (In Firenze: appresso Zanobi Pignoni, con licenza de' superiori, 1626).  First edition.  

The subject of the work is powdered mineral bezoar or oxide of antimony, described here as something of a wonder drug with many case histories of Florentines who have used it with amazing success.  The author was a pharmacist and of course could supply the miraculous cure to those in need of it.

Luchini, Paolo (Notaio in Modena). Inventarium bonorum M.ri Federici de Aldraris de Mantua (Inventario di beni di Federico de Aldrari di Mantova) promissorum Hieronimo de Ronchaleis ad computum iocalium D. Susanae. Sunt XXIII.

23 objects or groups of objects that were part of the dowry of a woman from Mantua who married a man from Modena.  A fascinating document that reveals a moment in the daily life of the 16th century. “Iocalia” in Medieval Latin was used for precious objects (jewels, furs, etc.).

Muzio, Girolamo (1490-1576). Egloghe... Divise in cinque libri. Le Amorose libro primo. Le Marchesane; libro secondo. Le Illustri libro terzo. Le Lugubri libro quarto. Le Varie libro quinto. Venezia, Gabriel Giolito et Fratelli, 1550.

Tullia d'Aragona

First Edition of Muzio’s first printed work, a collection of eclogues in five books, dedicated to Antonio d’Oria. Girolamo Muzio, a native of Padua, studied law in his native city. He spent some time at the court of Emperor Maximilian I as well as at Capo d’Istria, the birth place of his father, where he met again his early friend Pier Paolo Vergerio, papal diplomat and later a reformer. For a while he was at Ferrara and became an ardent admirer of Tullia d’Aragona, the famous courtesan and poetess. Later he became a protégé of Pope Pius V and of Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. His numerous writings against the Protestants brought him the surname of ‘hammer of heretics’.