[LÉVESQUE DE POUILLY (Louis-Jean)]

Lot 64
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1500 - 2000 EUR
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Result : 2 506EUR
[LÉVESQUE DE POUILLY (Louis-Jean)]
Reflections on pleasant feelings, and on the pleasure attached to virtue. Montbrillant, 1743. In-8, VII pp., 1 p.n.ch. (fleuron) and 88 pp.: marbled half-basane with small corners, spine ribbed, fawn title coin, red edges (contemporary binding). First book printed by Gauffecourt, an amateur printer and bookbinder: it is extremely rare. Louis-Jean Lévesque de Pouilly (1691-1750) was born in Reims. He first studied mathematics and history in Paris, which he abandoned to devote himself to literature. Around 1727, he was appointed lieutenant general of the presidial of his native town, which he equipped with schools, promenades and public fountains. The only literary work that the author has left us, these Reflections are based on a secular morality where natural law and virtue are considered the sovereign good. "The least known of the private printing houses." A relative of the author, Jean Vincent Capperonnier de Gauffecourt (1692-1766) had set up a small personal printing house in his country house in Monbrillant, on the outskirts of Geneva. He had abandoned his career as a watchmaker for the lucrative function of providing salt for the whole of Switzerland. Skilful with his hands and gifted with multiple talents (violinist, architect, locksmith and excellent cook), he was very close to Diderot and the general farmers. In the Fifth Book of Confessions, Rousseau speaks of their unfailing friendship, then he will suspect him of having been Thérèse's suborner. Charles Nodier claims that Gauffecourt would have partly destroyed this first essay "printed in 12 copies", displeased with the faults that had crept in. In fact, the essay was not followed by Monbrillant. Recent works have shown that for his famous Treatise on bookbinding, of which he is the printer and author, 25 copies were printed on his property at La Motte, near Lyon. Binding rubbing, split jaws, flattened headdresses. (Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l'amateur, 510, Bru
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