Beschreibung:

8°, circa 19 x 12,5 cm., 142 pp.; 123 pp., 1 f., with small vignettes. Pretty contemporary boards with German Kiebitz-Papier and two labels to the spine Cioranescu I, 9964; Gay V, 45. Rare first edition of this very curious work that pretends to publish letters by the marquise Claudine-Alexandrine Guerin de Tencin (1682-1749) and her friend Ganganelli (later pope Clemens XIV.). Madame de Tencin was the mistress of several eminent men and mother of the famous mathematician and philosopher Jean Baptiste le Rond d?Alembert. The work contains (again ficticious) letters by d?Alembert and Voltaire, epistolary exchanges with Frederic II of Prussia, Catherine the Great and others, little essays supposedly written with the help of Voltaire and many other texts that appear all to be completely made up. At the end of volume two there is a longer poem "Les cerises", supposedly written by Dorat while staying with Madame Tencin. Even the editorship seems to be wrongly foisted on the abbe Bathelemy who must me innocent of such a strange pastiche. The book is so full of unjustified insinuation that it was put on the index of forbidden books. - "Mlle de Tencin, nee en 1681, avait 24 ans de plus que Ganganelli (depuis Clement XIV). Elle etait auparavant maitresse du Regent, qui s en degouta promptement, disant qu il n aimait pas les p... Qui parlaient d affaires entre deux draps. Elle se consola dans les bras de l abbe Dubois et de beaucoup d autres. Elle eut pour fils le celebre d Alembert; elle l abandonna enfant et voulut, mais en vain, le reconnaitre quand il fut devenu illustre." (Gay). - Schönes Exemplar aus der Bibliothek der Franziska von Hohenheim - hier nicht in den gefleckten Einbänden, sondern in hübschem hellem Kiebitzpapier (Band 2 zusätzlich mit Umschlag aus dem gleichen Papier, mit Öffnungen für die Rückenschilder). Die Herzogin erwarb im Jahr 1790 das Gut Bächingen an der Brenz, das dann später von den Freiherren von Süßkind übernommen wurde. Der Titel mit dem alten Stempel "G. S. Baechingen a/ Brenz" (Nr. 1481a +b).

Bemerkung:

- Nice crisp copy of this rare work with an important provenance.