Lot n° 8
Estimation :
1000 - 1500
EUR
BERTHOD.
The City of Paris in burlesque verse.... - Lot 8 - Ader
BERTHOD.
The City of Paris in burlesque verse. Containing all the Gallantries of the Palace. The Chicane of the pleaders. The skulduggery of the Pont-Neuf. The Eloquence of the Harangeres of the Halle. The address of the Servants who shoe the Mulle. The Inventory of the Clothes Shop. The High Style of the Secretaries of St. Innocent. And several other things of this nature.
Paris : widow Guillaume Loyson, Jean-Baptiste Loyson, 1655. - In-4, soft parchment, gilt figure in the center of the boards, smooth spine (period binding).
Third edition given by Loyson and the fourth of the text, after the original of 1652, the reprint of 1653 and the Elzévirien counterfeit of 1654.
The author of this famous bawdy poem on Paris is a certain Berthod, also spelled Berthaud, Berthauld or Bertaut, of whom we know almost nothing
.
His ambition was not to lead the reader into the palaces of the Princes, the great ceremonies, what he calls "the beauties of Paris", but to make the reader discover "the places where one sees confusion & disorder", i.e. at the Palais Royal, at the Comédie, on the Pont-neuf, in the gallery of the Palais "where the Merchants say a hundred things at the same time", at the "buvette", at the charnel house of Saint Innocent, etc. He also introduces us to a picture seller, takes us on a tour of a thrift shop and describes the atmosphere of the halles.
This text has sometimes been considered a mazarinade since it contains the names of painters of the time, including Pinal, who was in charge of the paintings in Mazarin's palace. It is understood, however, that this piece has no connection with the political events that the mazarinades denounced.
The edition is illustrated, like the previous ones, with 2 superb full-page engravings by François Chauveau. The first one, located in the frontispiece, shows a street scene in Les Halles, representing a herring seller attacking a customer who questions the freshness of her fish. In the background we see two women fighting in front of a crowd that is watching them. The second illustration is a reprise of the engraving published in 1649 in Richer's "L'Ovide bouffon ou les métamorphoses burlesques".
A copy in a contemporary binding bearing on the boards a figure surmounted by a winged heart under a double crown, probably belonging to the English family of Wingham, originally from Kent.
Corners damaged with a few tears. Slight wetness and small tear on the top of the frontispiece, scattered foxing.
Provenance: handwritten note on the first leaf, dated 1656. - Wingham family, with its gilt figure on the boards. - Sir John Hay, baronet of Smithfield and Haystoun, with bookplate.
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