Rabelais - Les Œuvres de M. François Rabelais - 1584-1600

FRANÇOIS RABELAIS (c. 1494-1553)

RABELAIS, François.
The Works of Me François Rabelais, Doctor of Medicine. Containing five books, of the life, deeds, and heroic sayings of Gargantua, and of his son Pantagruel. Also, the Pantagrueline Prognostication, with the oracle of the Dive Bacbuc, and the word of the Bottle. Augmented with the Navigations & Isle Sonante, the Isle of Apedefres, the Philosophical Crème, with a Limosine Epistle, and two other Epistles to two old women of various morals. All by Me François Rabelais.

In Lyon, by Jean Martin, 1558 [un-dated edition, after 1584, probably around 1600].

Complete - 3 parts in 1 volume in small 12mo, 347 pp., [7] f.; 469 pp., [9] f.; 166 pp., [16] f., text printed in roman type and typographic ornaments wood-engraved, with the famous figure of the Dive Bottle, placed in the Fifth Book.

RARE EDITION AND BIBLIOGRAPHICALLY IMPORTANT

An uncommon collective edition of Rabelais’s works, long described under the date 1558, but today recognized as undated. The presence, following the Fifth Book, of the annexed pieces announced in the title — notably the Navigations, the Isle Sonante, the Philosophical Crème and the two epistles to the old women — excludes a print in 1558: their gathering with the works of Rabelais is attested only from 1584. Bibliographers generally place it around 1600, though there is no definitive typographic attribution that currently commands consensus.

The address “Jean Martin” is itself fictitious. This address is one of the most recurrent signatures of clandestine or counterfeit Rabelaisian editions from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Typographic research has notably linked this family of editions to productions from Rouen.

Thus the copy belongs to a bibliographic family particularly interesting, situated at the hinge between sixteenth-century Rabelaisian production and the popular editions of the early seventeenth century.

The famous “Dive Bottle,” wood-engraved and accompanied by its poetic text, is one of the most recognizable illustrations in the work.

EXEMPLAR

Binding in brown calf, covers adorned with a blind-stamped decorative pattern consisting of several filet borders, with corner fleurons and a central decoration; spine with raised bands ornamented with fillets and fleurons, with gilt title. Edges gilt.

Beautiful later full leather binding. Some rubbing and usage cracks on covers and spine, wear to the tips and joints. Old paper showing browning, foxing and scattered stains, with some old manuscript traces. The text is nevertheless in good condition.

Very fine bibliophilic interest for this rare edition, especially due to its old binding and the presence of the engraving of the Dive Bottle.

References: Plan, Bibliographie rabelaisienne, no. 95; Rawles & Screech, A New Rabelais Bibliography, no. 89.

Very fine copy.