La Rochefoucauld - Mémoires de M. D. L. R. - 1662

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, François de
Memoirs of Mr. D. L. R. On the Brigues at the death of Louis XIII. The Wars of Paris & of Guyenne, & the Prison of the Princes. Apology for Monsieur de Beaufort. Memoirs of Monsieur de la Chastre. Articles agreed by His Royal Highness & Monsieur le Prince for the expulsion of Cardinal Mazarin. Letter from the Cardinal to Monsieur de Brienne.
In Cologne, at Pierre Van Dyck’s, 1662 [Brussels, François Foppens].
Small octavo, [4] ff., 400 pp., [1] ff. Old plain vellum binding, title handwritten on the back, mark with the sphere.
Original clandestine edition, printed in Brussels by François Foppens under the false address of Cologne and the fictitious name of Pierre Van Dyck. The Memoirs were published in 1662 without La Rochefoucauld’s authorization and underwent several printings or states in the same year, which explains the significant variants noted by bibliographers.
This copy belongs to the series of 1662 impressions at 400 pages, with
- Preface to the reader and all the pieces announced in the title, notably
- the Memoirs of Monsieur de La Chastre.
- the Articles concerning Mazarin’s expulsion.
- The Cardinal’s letter to Monsieur de Brienne.
The copy presents the interesting typographical anomaly of page 276 printed as “376,” while pages 237 and 279 bear their normal numbering. Several errors noted in the 1662 errata of certain states are corrected here. The exact state of this copy is not assimilated to the second or third issues described by Tchémerzine, as the pagination variants do not correspond exactly to the currently documented copies.
Binding from the period or slightly later in vellum, but showing signs of use, foxing and minor old damp, yet the text is complete and legible. Globe, title page and “notes” aquarellé later on.
This is more likely an original clandestine edition, but not a second original edition nor, indeed, a third edition.
Indeed, one finds catalogs describing the same 400 pages as the “second original edition,” others as the “third,” and others again as one of the four simultaneous printings of the original edition. ([BiblioRare][2])
This copy, with 237 normal + 376 + 279 normal, should not be artificially forced into any of these categories.
This is a prudent notice that states what we can demonstrate and discreetly signals the bibliographic peculiarity without claiming to resolve a question that bibliographers themselves have not uniformly resolved.
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