Hebrew Printing in Sabbioneta 1 AFFO, Ireneo - Schulz-Falster Rare ...

First edition in French of this outspoken exposé of the ‘charlatanry of the
learned’, which was Wrst published in Latin in 1715 and translated by David
Durand, with additional remarks by contemporary critics. Menken pillories
the propensity of scholars to be fooled and tracks down quacks of all sorts.
He gives a comic review of the foibles of scholars, their vanity, and their
gullibility when confronted with fakes or frauds, their loud-mouthed advertising
methods, their money-grabbing publishing deals, etc. His claims are
supported by detailed bibliographical references, and an extensive index.
The Wnely engraved frontispiece shows the world as a stage, under the heading
‘Mundus vult decipi’ (the world wants to be deceived).
Interestingly, an extensive twenty-eight page catalogue of books available
at van Duren’s is included, listing amongst the newly published books
not only Mencken’s treatise, but also Law’s Considerations sur le Commerce,
Swift’s Conte du Tonneau, and Locke’s Du Gouvernement Civile.
With this work the historian and writer Mencken (1674–1732) became
famous throughout Europe, with translations and reprints being published
throughout the Wrst half of the eighteenth century. He is also known as the
founder of the well-known biographical dictionary, Jöcher’s Gelehrtenlexicon
(Wrst 1715). The enthusiasm for exposing the quackery of the learned
seems to have run in the family: the American literary critic H. L. Mencken
was a descendant, and in 1937 published an English translation.
See Faber du Faur 1738 for German translation; NDB XVII, p. 34.
Letters on Italy
79 MERCIER DUPATY, C.-M, Jean Baptiste. Lettres sur l’Italia
en 1785. Tome Premier [–Tome Second]. Rome, Paris, de Senne,
1788. £350
Two volumes in one, 8vo, pp. viii, 320; iv, 320; title vignette and
decorative endpieces; some light foxing, else clean; contemporary calfbacked
paste-paper boards; spine gilt, with contrasting gilt-lettered
spine labels; sides rubbed; an attractive copy.
First edition, uncommon, of Mercier Dupaty’s Wrst-hand account in one
hundred and Wfteen letters on Italy, beginning with the south of France
and Geneva, and covering Lucca, Pisa, Florence, Rome and Naples. Clearly
interested in economic aspects, local custom, and social institutions, the
author gives a fascinating view of the natural and artistic beauty of Italy.
The work proved highly popular, was frequently reprinted and translated
into English the same year.
Mercier Dupaty (1746–88), a French magistrate and academician, who
carried the enlightened ideas of Beccaria and Voltaire into the courts and
contributed to the reform of the legal system in France.
Barbier II, 1293; Cioranescu 26684; D’Ancona 610–611; Fossati-Bellani 409–418
(later edition).
susanne schulz-falster rare books