Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Ten

84 DECREMPS, Henri. La Magie Blanche Dévoilée, ou
explicaiton des Tours surprenans qui sont depuis peu l’admiration de
la Capitale & de la Province. Avec des réXexions sur la Baguette
Divinatoire, les Automates joueurs de’Echecs, &c. &c. Ouvrage orné
de 101 Figures. Tome Premier, Paris, F. J. Desoer, 1789.
[bound with:] Supplément a la Magie Blanche Dévoilée. Paris, F. J.
Desoer, 1789.
[bound with:] Testament de Jérome Sharp, Professeur de Physique
amusante. Paris, F. J. Desoer, 1789.
[bound with:] Les Petites Aventures de Jérome Sharp. Professeur de
Physique amusante. Bruxelles, F. J. Desoer, 1790. £2400
Four volumes bound in two, 8vo, frontispiece, pp. viii, 118; viii, 270,
[1] approbation, with engraved frontispiece bound in; xvi, 262 [1],
woodcut music bound as frontispiece; xii, 266, frontispiece as part of
collation; all four volumes with frontispiece, numerous woodcut Wgures
in the text, some full page, including printed music; contemporary full
mottled calf, spine decoratively gilt in compartments, two contrasting
gilt-lettered spine labels; gilding a little faded, paper shelf marks to foot
of spine, and in crayon to front free endpaper; a Wne set from the library
of Freiherr von Wrede Melschede with oblong stamps to margin of
title.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue ten
A very attractive collected edition of the most important works on conjuring,
mathematical games and scientiWc recreations by Henri Decremps, a
mathematician and avid conjurer, who attempted to explain magical phenomena
rationally as trickery or sleight of hand. Of particular interest are
his descriptions of speciWc tricks and illusions, based on magnetism, electricity,
geometry, perspective, optics, with illustrations of speciWc tricks. He
describes a wide array of automatons and machinery, for the performance
of marvels, which according to the author were attributable to magnets,
concealed canaries and other devices. Some of Decremps’ ‘scientiWc explanations’
and mathematics, were later revealed to be fanciful themselves, as
was pointed out by Fiard.
Some of Decremps’ works were written under the Wctional guise of Prof.
Jérome Sharpe. The works proved immensely popular both in France, and
in England, where La Magie Blanche Dévoilée was published under the title
The Conjurer Unmasked in the translation of Thomas Denton.
See Caillet 2861 (Magie Blanche, Wrst edition 1784–5), Caillet 2862 (Testament de
Jerome Sharp, Wrst edition 1786), Caillet 2864 (Petites Aventures, Wrst edition
1789).
Goldoni and the Revival of Italian Theatre
85 DE ROSSI, Giovanni Gherardo. Del Moderno Teatro comico
Italiano, e del suo restauratore Carlo Goldoni. Bassano, Remondini,
1794. £650
8vo, pp. 127; uncut and mostly unopened in contemporary stiV pastepaper
wrappers; a Wne copy.
First edition of this contemporary study of the eighteenth century Italian
stage and in particular of Goldoni, who was instrumental in reviving the
dramatic tradition. De Rossi gives an account of earlier Italian theatre, especially
its Commedia dell’Arte tradition and contrasts it with the French tradition
of Molière. He provides an overview of the decline of the Italian
theatre in the middle of the eighteenth century. Goldoni’s revival of the
comic tradition was achieved through greater reliance on characters and
situations taken from contemporary life, as a mirror of social life. Goldoni
utilised the performance practices of comic opera for his comic stage plays.
RLIN lists copies at New York Public Library, Yale, Princeton, Chicago and the
Getty Library.
86 [DELALEU – AUCTION CATALOGUE.] Catalogue des
Livres de la Bibliothèque de Feu M. Delaleu, secretaire du Roi, et
Notaire a Paris; Don’t la Vente se fera en sa Maison, Hôtel de la
Tour-du-Pin, Vieille Rue du Temple, le Mardi deux Mai & jours
suivans, de relevée, au plus OVrant & dernier Enchérisseur. Paris,
Saillant & Nyon, 1775. £350
8vo, pp. xx, 138, 118; lxix (vere lxvii); Wrst and last leaves reinforced in