[Voltaire]. Lettres de M. de V*** avec plusieurs pièces de différens auteurs. La Haye, Pierre Poppy, 1738. In-12. 175, [3], 2 bl. pp. Full contemporary tan calfskin, spine with 5 raised bands, title label in fawn morocco, edges speckled with red.
Rare first edition of this anticlerical and highly licentious collection, often reprinted and expanded, containing in particular the first version of the Letter on Locke (On the Soul), several poems by Voltaire including the Epitre Ă Uranie, a violent anticlerical poem that earned Voltaire a spell in the Bastille, first edition under this title, with numerous typographical corrections from the period in line with the 1747 edition, our edition being particularly faulty, even to the point of misinterpretation, and finally the first edition of the famous speech by the Chevalier de Ramsay, the founding text of the High Degrees of Freemasonry. This speech was delivered on 25 or 26 December 1736 in the Saint-Jean Lodge in Paris, on the eve of the re-election of a new Grand Master. Rewritten in March 1737 (this is the version given in this collection), the speech should have been delivered at a general meeting of the Order on 24 March 1737, but Cardinal de Fleury disapproved of this meeting, which did not take place.
The collection is presented as follows:
Lettres philosophiques par M. de V***. XXVI. Lettrer Sur l’Ame [pp. 1-22] ; Les Adieux de M. de V*** à Madame de Chastelet [poem, 23-29] ; Autre pièce [licentious satirical poem, 29-30] ; Le débauché converti par M. Robbé de Beauveset [very licentious poem, 30-41] ; Marsias, Allégorie contre Rameau par Roy, août 1737 [41-46] ; Discours prononcé à la réception des Frée-Maçons. Par M. de Ramsay, grand Orateur de l’Ordre [47-70] suivi des Statuts [satire [?] on the unisexuality of lodges, with reference to homosexuality, 71-74] ;
L’Etonnement [poem75-78] ; Le Poète vengé [78-83] ; L’Asne et le Rossignol [fable, 84-89] followed by l’Epilogue [90-91] ; Le nouveau roy des grenouilles ou le P. J. dans un fossé [free verse satire, 92-109] ; Epigramme [against Voltaire [?], 109]; Les Deux Rats [very licentious poem, 110-113];
L’Ygrec ou la Fourche [idem, 113-116] ; Enigme [in verse, about the penis 116-117] ;
Epigramme [about the Count of Saint-Sulpice, 118] ; Epitaphe pour Jean CĂ©sar de la Parisière [118] ; Lettre de la Baronne de Roupillac Ă Madame des Etoiles […] [Voltaire’s satire [?] against de la Marre, 119-129] ; Lettre pastorale du rĂ©vĂ©rendissime Pancrasse Pellegrin, patriarche de l’OpĂ©ra […] [anticlerical satirical poem, 129-133] ; Epitre Ă Uranie par M. de Voltaire [violent anticlerical satire, 134-140] ; La Mule du pape [by Voltaire, idem, 141-142] ; Le Nez et les Pincettes, conte par Piron [licentious poem, 143-148] ; L’Anti-mondain par le mĂŞme [satirical poem, 149-153] ; L’Habit ne fait pas le moine, by the same [157-161] ; 2 poems byPiron ; La rĂ©conciliation de Rousseau avec ses ennemis [164-167] ; ApothĂ©ose de Mademoiselle Couvreur, actrice, morte le 2 mars 1730 by M. de Voltaire [167-169] ; 5 poems in the same style.
La Recette inutile, anticlerical satirical verse tale by Petit du Noyer, excerpt from his Lettres historiques et galantes, was carefully copied in pen at the time, on the lower flyleaf.
Pencil portrait of Voltaire on the flyleaf.
Bengesco, II, 20 ; Quérard, Bibliographie Voltairienne, 1 et 6 ; by the same author, La France littéraire, X, 278 ; by the same, Supercheries, II, 881 ; Pia only cites the expanded editions of 1756 and later, Les Livres de l’Enfer, col. 781 ; M. Benitez, Voltaire libertin : l’Epître à Uranie, Revue Voltaire n° 8, PUPS, 2008, pp. 99-135 ; Fesch, 1125 et 853-854 (cites the 1739 edition).
A few rare spots and foxes. Pages L2-L5 remounted. (Epitre Ă Uranie). Binding rubbed, wear at corners. A good and rare copy.
900 €