Jean-Baptiste de Junquières - Caquet-Bonbec, la poule à ma tante. Poème badin - 1763

Rare original edition of this humorous and anti-religious poem in verse, which recounts the initiatory adventures of a pretty hen in the world.

This amusing work deserves a mention despite its frivolity. A niece is supposed to tell the adventures of a pretty hen that her aunt cherished... reading her poem is a pleasure; her verses are elegant and naive; her narration is natural, and clever or sharp traits often season it (Larousse).

A second edition will be published in the same year, different from the original by the addition of a frontispiece and by the number of pages, which differs (76 compared to 69 in the original).

The author was the captain of the Hunts of the city of Senlis. Specialized studies note that this work strangely contains, in four of its 'chants,' an exact description of practices of alectryomancy, a rite of Greek origin that uses the divinatory abilities attributed by the ancients to the rooster. (Barbier, 'Anonymous Works,' I, 497. Gay, I, 475.)

Flamed sheepskin, smooth back decorated with gilded fittings, longitudinal title on a piece of red Morocco leather. Rollers on the cuts. (period binding).

Condition: a corner punched, otherwise the binding is in very good condition. Sporadic foxing, mainly on the endpapers and the title page. Good copy.

Jean-Baptiste de Junquières
Caquet-Bonbec, the hen belonging to my aunt. A lighthearted poem.
Without place, without name, 1763
In-12 (15 x 9 cm); 69 pages.