[ ANNOTATED COPY] - Les OEUVRES, 1588

ANNOTATED COPY of a very rare 16th century edition
OF RABELAIS' WORKS

(Only 1 copy in US)

RABELAIS, François,
Les oeuvres… contenant cinq livres de la vie, faicts et dicts héroïques de Gargantua et de son fils Pantagruel. Plus la Prognostication pantagrueline, avec l'oracle de la dive Bacbuc et le mot de la bouteille. Augmenté des Navigations et Isle sonante,
Lyon, Jean Martin (= Rouen, Georges Loyselet), 1588.

3 parts in 2 volumes in-16, 402 p., (5) ff. ; 576 p., (6) ff. ; 210 p., (18) ff. Brown morocco, early 19th c. binding) (joins and hinges rubbed, scattered wetness and stains, russet ring to the first 20 ff. of vol. I; one diagonally torn leaf). Dimensions: 12 x 7.5 cm.

Collation : missing two-thirds of the text on pp. 65-66 of vol. I, and, as often in Rabelais works : 2 missing leaves in the second part corresponding to the Tiers livre, pp. 101-102 & 103-104).

References: Rawles-Screech, New Rabelais Bibliography, 74. USTC, 6932.

Language of annotations: French, Latin, Greek.

Provenance: "G.H. Rümker, 18(...)", probably Georg Heinrich Rümker, student in Rostock in 1805 (handwritten bookplate on title page of each volume, with date truncated by binder's knife on vol. I and R wet stamp).

Bibliography: R. Cappellen, "À l'enseigne du masque : imprimeurs, libraires et éditeurs de Rabelais de 1552 à 1588", Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance, 2016, pp. 65-115.

Very rare edition of the Oeuvres de Rabelais, unknown to Pierre-Paul Plan and Tchemerzine.

The New Rabelais Bibliography (NRB-74) lists only 6 copies in public collections, plus one in the Rothschild collection at the BnF. Only one copy is preserved in the United States (Chicago, Newberry library).

Raphaël Cappellen's research now allows us to attribute this edition to the Rouen workshop of Georges Loyselet, a major purveyor of French narrative literature in the 1570s-1580s ("À l'enseigne du masque", p. 85). It was indeed printed in 1588, and should not be confused with the better-known and falsely dated "1588" listed under reference NRB-88.

Annotated copy

Our copy has the particularity of being annotated with a few dozen notes by an early 19th-century German reader: Georg Heinrich Rümker. He added a small leaflet (between pp. 6 and 7 of vol. I) to comment on the references to Homer in the prologue to Gargantua. Notably, he quotes several times from Molière's Theatre plays, in particular La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas: t. II, Quart Livre, p. 517; t. I, p. 335 with reference to t. VI of Oeuvres de Molière, p. 263).

His knowledge of antiquity is remarkable: as a source of Macaronic verse, he cites Petronius' Satyricon (vol. II, Quart Livre, p. 357). For the name Lychnobians ("those who come from lanterns", t. II, CL, p. 154), he points to the correspondence of Seneca (letter 122) and the Natural History of Pliny the Elder (t. II, Quart Livre, p. 450).

Our annotator is equally adept at identifying Greek references: not only does he spot allusions to Aristotle's Problèmes (vol. II, p. 475), but he also notes Rabelais's borrowings from Athenaeus (Banquet des savants ) and Herodian (Histoire) (vol. II, Quart livre, p. 495). A few references to the Renaissance punctuate his annotation, including Corneille Agrippa's De incertitudine (t. II, Quart livre, chap. 37, p. 450-451). The interests of a German reader shine through in the reference to Till Eulenspiegel (t. I, p. 196) and in a rather lengthy note on Lake Wunderbarlich near Bern (t. I, Tiers livre, ch. 28, p. 146). At a more recent date, a copy of one of the reading "keys" (with more or less fanciful identifications of historical figures, 2 ff. laminated) was added to the end of volume 2.

Annotated copies of Rabelais' works are extremely rare.