Ancillon - Traité des Eunuques - 1707

CAN EUNUCHS GET MARRIED? ONE OF THE MOST CURIOUS AND PROVOCATIVE STUDIES TREATED IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
FIRST EDITION
A rare first edition of one of the most singular curiosities published at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the work of the French jurist and historian Charles Ancillon (1659-1715). Appearing anonymously in 1707 under the siglum “M*** D***,” the Traité des Eunuques addresses with surprising breadth historical, legal, religious, and even anthropological aspects of the condition of eunuchs, distinguishing their different types and reconstructing their role in ancient and modern societies. The heart of the work, however, is a question as insolite as it is legally complex: whether a eunuch may validly contract marriage. Taking the Italian castrato case as a starting point, Ancillon investigates the relationship between impotence, sterility, castration, procreation, and the validity of the matrimonial bond, bringing natural law, civil law, and canon law into dialogue. The result is a book surprisingly modern in its variety of perspectives, in which the history of medicine, sexuality, religion, manners, and classical erudition intertwine with curious and sometimes ironic observations. The dedication to Pierre Bayle, signed with the anagram “C. d’Ollincan,” also places the work at the heart of the European République des Lettres on the eve of the Enlightenment. This copy preserves its simple and suggestive full contemporaneous parchment with manuscript title on the spine.

WHY TO BUY
PRIMA EDIZIONE – 1707! One of the most astonishing curious legal and anthropological works of the early eighteenth century.
GLI EUNUCHI POSSONO SPOSARSI? An exceptional theme tackled at the intersection of law, medicine, sexuality, and religion.
DEDICA A PIERRE BAYLE! A book born in the most refined and unconformist milieu of the République des Lettres.
PERGAMENA COEVA! A copy complete in its authentic seventeenth-eighteenth century binding with manuscript title on the spine.

MARKET VALUE
The first edition of Traité des Eunuques belongs to a collectible niche particularly interesting, linked to curiosa, the history of medicine, sexuality, marriage law, and the libertine and scholarly culture of the early eighteenth century. The demand is selective but international and rises significantly for copies that are complete and preserved in an era-binding. For this copy, complete according to the stated collation and in full parchment of the period, a retail value of around €550-700 seems realistic, with potential for higher asking price in a specialized catalog dedicated to curiosa, historical medicine, or the history of sexuality.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
[20], 187, [3] pages. Title page ornately featuring the characteristic woodcut figure depicting a hand supporting an armillary sphere or planisphere. The dedication letter to Pierre Bayle and the final pages are preserved. Contemporary full parchment binding with the title “Traité des Eunuques” manuscript longitudinally on the smooth spine. Parchment with natural waviness, slight staining, abrasions, and small signs of time. The interior is overall well preserved, with generally clear paper and good impression; slight browning, foxing, stains, and marginal signs of use. Overall a genuine and pleasing specimen in its seventeenth-eighteenth century guise.
The dedication to Pierre Bayle is signed “C. d’Ollincan,” an anagram of Charles Ancillon.
As with all old volumes, slight defects or restorations not expressly mentioned are possible.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Charles Ancillon (1659-1715), published anonymously under the siglum “M*** D***.”
Traité des Eunuques, dans lequel on explique toutes les différentes sortes d’Eunuques, quel rang ils ont tenu, & quel cas on en a fait, &c. On examine principalement s’ils sont propres au Mariage, & s’il leur doit être permis de se marier, et l’on fait plusieurs remarques curieuses & divertissantes à l’occasion des Eunuques, &c.
S.l. [Berlin or Amsterdam], s.n., 1707.
PRIMA EDIZIONE.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Charles Ancillon (1659-1715) was a French jurist, historian, and statesman belonging to a Huguenot family. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the ensuing emigration of many French Protestants, he settled in Brandenburg, entering the administrative and cultural milieu of Berlin and assuming important roles within the community of French refugees. His intellectual activity is placed in the cosmopolitan climate that characterized the Prussian capital at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th century. Ancillon dealt with history, politics, law, and religious questions, showing a particular interest in issues where legal norms, cultural traditions, and human behavior clashed. The Traité des Eunuques certainly constitutes his most original and curious work. In the volume the author chooses not to declare his identity openly, but signs the dedication to Pierre Bayle with “C. d’Ollincan,” a transparent anagram of his own name. This device allowed him to maintain a form of editorial anonymity while making himself recognizable to the learned circles of the République des Lettres. The choice to dedicate the book to Bayle is particularly significant: it places Ancillon within a critical, erudite European culture, relatively free of prejudices, in which even a seemingly scandalous topic could become an occasion to discuss rationally questions of law, religion, nature, and society.

RARITY
The first edition of Traité des Eunuques of 1707 is little common and constitutes one of the most characteristic curiosa of the jurisprudential and scholarly literature of the early eighteenth century. The original anonymity, the absence of a clear place and printer, the extremely unusual subject, and the cryptically signed dedication to Pierre Bayle contribute to the book’s special bibliographic charm. The volume appeals to several collecting domains at once: curiosa, history of sexuality, castrates, medical history, matrimonial law, anthropology, religious history, and the culture of the République des Lettres. Copies complete and preserved in simple eighteenth-century parchment bindings, like the present copy, are particularly desirable. The combination of a topic still striking today and a very sober scholarly approach makes Traité des Eunuques far more sought after than a common contemporary legal treatise.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
Traité des Eunuques is an extraordinary document of European culture at the transition from the Seventeenth to the Enlightenment. Behind a apparently quirky title lies a complex discussion of some of the fundamental problems of matrimonial law: what makes a marriage valid, what role procreative capacity plays, what difference exists between sterility and impotence, and to what extent an individual’s physical condition can determine civil and religious rights. Ancillon uses examples drawn from classical antiquity, the Bible, the history of oriental courts, canon law, and contemporary casuistry, building an investigation that today could be read as an early interdisciplinary study of sexuality and body identity. The reference to the marriage of an Italian castrato is particularly significant, turning an anatomical curiosity into a genuine legal and social problem. The dedication to Pierre Bayle finally links the work to the critical culture of the République des Lettres and to the intellectual era that would prepare the ground for Enlightenment reflection on tolerance, natural law, and individual liberty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, III, 779.
Gay – Lemonnyer, Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’amour, aux femmes, au mariage, III, 1239.
Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes, I, 39.
Dorbon-Aîné, Bibliotheca Esoterica, n. 99.
Wellcome Collection, Traité des eunuques, attribué a Charles Ancillon, 1707.
Charles Ancillon, Traité des Eunuques, s.l., 1707.
Repertori bibliografici dedicati ai curiosa, alla storia della medicina, della sessualità e del diritto matrimoniale europeo.