Piron - Ode à Priape [24 lithographies] - 1940

Alexis Piron. GALANT WORKS. ODE TO PRIAPUS. Decorated with 24 original color lithographs.

without publisher’s name, without place, without date (circa 1940), large octavo (25.3 x 16.6 cm), 56 pages + 24 plates, loose sheets with a soft cover and flap, housed in a case with a slipcase.

Introduction by an anonymous author: "Praise of Piron by a prudent Academician".

Works illustrated with 24 color lithographs in a very free spirit, by an anonymous artist.

Edition clandestinely published around 1940; the announced print run is 687 copies numbered on Marais vellum.

Copy in excellent condition, aside from minor signs of wear to the outer casing.

The work Oeuvres galantes. Ode to Priape. Decorated with 24 original color lithographs is a clandestine edition dating from circa 1940, devoted to one of the most scandalous works of the French poet Alexis Piron (1689–1773). This edition, undated and without a precise place of publication (S.l., n.d.), highlights the Ode to Priape, a licentious poem composed by Piron around the age of 20, circa 1710, when he was a lawyer at the Parliament of Burgundy, although he never argued a case.

The 24 original color lithographs, in a very free tone, depict satirical and erotic scenes—monks, notables and women in suggestive situations—each treated with humor and precision.

Alexis Piron, a native of Dijon, was known for his caustic wit, his epigrams, and his satirical verve. The Ode to Priape, dedicated to the Greek god of fertility endowed with enormous virility, is a provocative hymn to carnal pleasure. The poem, extremely bold for its time, earned Piron threats of prosecution in Dijon, but he continued to write freely.