Catalogue Number 12 - Susanne Schulz-Falster

After twelve months at thirty days each, there would be Wve remaining festival
days in the year, for talent (genie), industry, heroic deeds, and ideas
(opinions) respectively. After a brief introduction to the calendar, details
for reluctant ‘republicans’, i.e. some satirical facts of the new regime are
given. Its institutions, government, and foreign relations are criticized,
with the brief observation, that all population increase will be kept in check
by the guillotine.
The revolutionary calendar is followed by a Christian calendar for the
year 1794, together with a declaration of allegiance to the monarchy.
OCLC lists one copy at the university of Chicago (under Fabre d’Eglantine), not
found in Grand-Carteret, Welschinger, Les Almanachs de la Révolution,
Monglond, or Tourneux.
In Praise of the French Language
69 RIVAROL, Antoine de. Dissertations sur l’Universalité de la
Langue Françoise, qui ont partagé le Prix adjugé par l’Académie
Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres le 3 Juin, MDCCLXXXIV.
Berlin, George Jacques Decker, Imprimeur du Roi, 1784.
[Bound with:] SCHWAB, Jean Christophe. Dissertation sur
l’Universalité de la Langue Françoise. Beantwortung der von
der Könglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin furs Jahr
1784 aufgegebenen Preisfrage: Was ist es, das die Französische
Sprache zu einer Universalsprache in Europa gemacht hat.
Wodurch verdient sie diesen Vorzug? Ist zu vermuthen, daß
sie ihn behalten werde? £2800
Two works in one volume, 4to, pp. [ii], 52; 87; uncut, title page dustsoiled
with some staining, two tears to lower margin strengthened from
verso, signatures B and C of the second work with some marginal
damp-staining; recent marbled boards, with printed label to spine and
upper boards; small unidentiWed heraldic stamp to verso of title.
First edition, very rare, of Rivarol’s prize-winning essay on the universality
of the French language, published by the Berlin Academy of Sciences, together
with Schwab’s essay on the same question. Brief, brilliant, and aphoristic,
this celebration of the glory of the French language is included in
even the briefest history of the French language and has served as an indicator
for the pride the French take in their language and culture. Rivarol
maintained that there was no need to look further for a universal language,
as French already possessed all the necessary characteristics. In a sweeping
overview he condenses centuries of French linguistic history and celebrates
French culture.
Umberto Eco sums up his main points: ‘Apart from its intrinsic perfection,
French was already an international language; it was the language
most diVused in the world, so much that is was possible to speak of the
‘French world’ just as, in antiquity, one could speak of the ‘Roman world’.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue twelve
According to Rivarol, French possessed a phonetic system that guaranteed
sweetness and harmony, as well as a literature incomparable in its richness
and grandeur; ... In comparison with French all other languages paled: German
was too guttural, Italian too soft, Spanish to redundant, English too
obscure. Rivarol attributed the superiority of French to its word order: Wrst
subject, then verb, and last object. This word order mirrored a natural logic
which was in accordance with the requirements of common sense’. Rivarol
condenses his arguments in great aphoristic style: ‘Ce qui n’est pas clair,
n’est pas français’.
Rivarol (1754–1801), a man of letters, journalist and pamphleteer, was
celebrated in Paris for his learning, wit, and brilliant conversation. He left
France during the French revolution, stayed brieXy in England, where he
was respectfully received by Pitt and Burke, in spite of his dismissive remarks
on English language and literature. He later moved to Hamburg,
where he composed his ‘Discours préliminaire du nouveau dictionnaire de la
langue française’ in 1797, an attempt to present the human mind through
the evolution of language, particularly the French language.
The Wrst edition of this work is very rare, it was reprinted the same year
with a ‘Berlin and Paris imprint (à Berlin, et se trouve à paris, chez Baily et
Dessenne) , with a further edition following in 1797.
En Français dans le Texte 177; Cioranescu 53293; Tchemerzine IX, p. 103 (mistakenly
listing the second issue as the original); OCLC lists just one copy at the Boston
Athenaeum, RLIN adds just microWlms; see Umberto Eco, The search for the perfect
language, 1995.
70 RIZZETTI, Luigi. Riforma de’ Carri di Quattro Ruote.
Trevigi, A Spese dell’Autore, 1785. £2200
Tall 8vo, pp. [ii], [viii], cxii, large engraved title vignette showing a
carriage, nine folding engraved plates bound at the end; uncut in the
original buV stiV wrappers, spine lettered in manuscript; covers a little
dust-soiled, but in all a very Wne copy.