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SOMAIZE (Antoine Baudeau de).
The Great Dictionary of the Pretentious, or The Key to the Language of the Alleys.
Paris: Jean Ribou, 1661.
Fees include commission and taxes.
The Great Dictionary of the Pretentious, or The Key to the Language of the Alleys.
Paris: Jean Ribou, 1661.
3 parts in 1 large in-12 volume, (16) leaves, 314 pp., (2) leaves (privilegium); 320 pp. (including title page); 46 pp., (1) blank leaf. 19th-century red morocco, spine with raised bands decorated with gold stippling, title, place and date in gold, finely decorated panels with small ironwork, gilt scrolls at top and bottom, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, double gilt fillet with cut-outs, guilloché caps, interior lace, gilt edges on marbled paper [Cuzin] (very slight rubbing to the cap and bottom corners).
Roger Portalis (1841–1912), art writer and bibliophile; his library was sold in 1882 and again in 1889 by Porquet, and in 1913 (bookplate featuring a coat of arms, gilded on orange paper).
First edition of this satirical work by the polemicist Somaize, known as ‘the Writer of the Pont Neuf’, often confused with the volume published under the same title in 1660 and reprinted that same year following a case of plagiarism… Little is known about the life of Baudeau de Somaize, whose career as a polemical writer was lively but short-lived. He rose to prominence following a controversy with Molière, whom he accused of plagiarism in relation to *Les Précieuses*… These women and their movement subsequently became the main subject of his writings.
The third part of the volume contains La Clef. A copper-engraved frontispiece after G. Ladame. A very fine copy in a fine Cuzin binding. ‘An indispensable work for the study of polite society in Paris in the mid-17th century. Its price continues to rise’ Gay-Lemmonier, 61–62.