[HERSENT (Charles)] - Lot 43

Lot n° 43
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[HERSENT (Charles)] - Lot 43
[HERSENT (Charles)] Optati Galli de Cavendo schismate. Ad illustrissimos ac reverendissimos ecclesiae Gallicanae primates, archiepiscopos, Episcopos. Liber paraeneticus. Sans lieu, 1640. Bound with: Arrest de la cour de parlement, par lequel il est ordonné, que le libelle intitulé Optati Galli de Cavendo schismate &c. sera laceré & bruslé : Et defenses à toutes personnes d'en avoir & retenir sur les peines portées par ledit Arrest. Paris, Sebastien Cramoisy, 1640. 2 works in a small volume in-8 of 39 pp. ; 11 pp. red morocco, spine with ornate nerves, large gilt lace framing the boards, gold filleted edges, inner lace, gilt edges (18th century binding). The book and its condemnation bound in morocco for Girardot de Préfond. "Of all the libels, & satyres made against the cardinal of Richelieu, this one is the most piquant, & the one which touched most appreciably this minister, whom the author's aim was to make odious to the whole world", affirms Guillaume de Bure in the very long note of his Bibliographie instructive (1768, n° 981, pp. 17-51) which he devotes to the history of the pamphlet by Charles Hersent, theologian and polemicist involved in the Gallican controversy. Not only was the destruction of the defamatory libel ordered, but Cardinal de Richelieu instructed "an infinite number of people to make exact searches on all sides in order to collect copies, to buy them, and to hand them over to him; which succeeded so well in view of the large number of people who were quite happy to court him, that this volume has become very rare" (de Bure). The resounding pamphlet became so rare that counterfeits were made, like this one. The pamphlet is here followed by the official decree of March 23, 1640 ordering its destruction. A choice copy, bound for Paul Girardot de Préfond, in lace morocco. One of the most ardent bibliophiles of the Age of Enlightenment, Paul Girardot de Préfond (1722 - ca. 1785) had made his fortune in the wood trade. He built up two collections: the first was dispersed at public sale by Guillaume de Bure in 1757; the second was sold prematurely to the sumptuous Count Mac-Carthy Reagh in 1765, under pressure from his creditors (Catalogue Mac-Carthy I, 1815, n° 1168). (Bourgeois & André, Les Sources de l'histoire de France IV, n° 2819. - Peignot, Dictionnaire des principaux livres condamnés au feu I, 1806, p. 179.)
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