De la Grandeur et de l'Excellence des Femmes, audessus des Hommes
By H[einrich] C[ornelius] Agrippa [von Nettesheim], trans. * * * [d'Arnaudin neveu]
GIRL POWER WITH PROVENANCE. Duodecimo (5 9/16 x 3 3/16 , 148mm x 81mm) Bound in red crushed morocco (before 1839) with triple gilt-gilt-fillet borders over gilt corner rosettes. On the spine, eight bands composed of a horizontal gilt branch (?) with a gilt fillet top-and-bottom (doubled at the tail) creating six panels. Gilt rosette in the center of each panel. In the second panel, title: EXELL [sic] | DES | FEMME [sic] . Diagonal gilt strokes to the edges of the boards, and to the dentelles. Brown, yellow, pink, blue and white marbled end-papers. All edges gilt. Green silk marking-ribbon. Front cover splaying a little, with some cracking to the front hinge. Rear lower fore-corner chipped to about 1/8 . Paper flaws at the fore-edge of B2 and of D6. Quite faint water-marking along the fore-edge from F1-L8, often too faint to notice. Quite nice margins, especially along the lower edge. With the armorial bookplates of Count H. de la Bedoyère (front paste-down) and of R.C.G. de Pixerécourt (second free end-paper). A lovely book. Henry Corneille Agrippa, as the biography at the beginning calls him, was born at Nettesheim near Cologne in 1486. He served and traveled with many noblemen, including as a captain under Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. Best known throughout the XVIc and XVIIc as an occultist, Agrippa s magnum opus is the three-volume De occulta philosophia (1533, though a draft existed as early as 1510). The treatise of which the present item is a translation is the De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus declamatio (Speech about the nobility and excellence of the female sex), which was published in 1529. It is widely considered to be an attempt to secure the patronage or at least the favor of Margaret, daughter of Maximilian I. Of that original edition, (Antwerp: Apud Michaelum Hillenium, though there appears to have been a printing in Cologne as well), only eight copies are recorded on WorldCat. In the treatise, Agrippa seeks to demonstrate the overall superiority of women, using not only scripture Adam was born in a field but brought to Paradise, Eve was born in Paradise but also the Christian Cabala. The Cabala based on the Jewish interpretative tradition of magic, mysticism, numerology and astrology demonstrates, according to Agrippa, that, since Eve s name is closer to God s than is Adam s, womankind has more of the substance of divinity than has mankind. The text was translated into French sometime in the second quarter of the XVIc, again in 1686 and then finally in 1713, anonymously, but named by Quérard as the nephew of a doctor of theology by the name of d Arnaudin. After 1713, there are several additional French translations. The appeal of the work a tiny countercurrent against the sea of misogyny is evergreen. The item is quite rare, with only nine copies in institutional libraries, and no records at auction. The two bookplates add considerable interest to the item. The earlier belongs to René-Charles Guilbert de Pixerécourt, a French dramatist of some renown. He served as the director of the Théâtre royal de l Opéra-Comique from 1824 to 1827, and was a founding member of the Société de Bibliophiles français. He retired from Paris to Nancy in 1838, and his library was sold in Paris in 1839 (our item is lot 1519, sold 18 February). Noël-François-Henri Huchet, Count de La Bedoyère (1782 1861), was among the greatest French bibliomanes of the XIXc (he was a member of Pixerécourt s Société de Bibliophiles). Two sales of his books one in 1837, the other in 1862 fetched enormous sums. This item was sold in the 1862 sale (lot 1690, sold 17 February). Not in Brunet; Pixérecourt sale 1519, La Bédoyère sale 1690.
Published by: François Babuty, 1713
Vendor: Pryor-Johnson Rare Books, ABAA
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By H[einrich] C[ornelius] Agrippa [von Nettesheim], trans. * * * [d'Arnaudin neveu]
GIRL POWER WITH PROVENANCE. Duodecimo (5 9/16 x 3 3/16 , 148mm x 81mm) Bound in red crushed morocco (before 1839) with triple gilt-gilt-fillet borders over gilt corner rosettes. On the spine, eight bands composed of a horizontal gilt branch (?) with a gilt fillet top-and-bottom (doubled at the tail) creating six panels. Gilt rosette in the center of each panel. In the second panel, title: EXELL [sic] | DES | FEMME [sic] . Diagonal gilt strokes to the edges of the boards, and to the dentelles. Brown, yellow, pink, blue and white marbled end-papers. All edges gilt. Green silk marking-ribbon. Front cover splaying a little, with some cracking to the front hinge. Rear lower fore-corner chipped to about 1/8 . Paper flaws at the fore-edge of B2 and of D6. Quite faint water-marking along the fore-edge from F1-L8, often too faint to notice. Quite nice margins, especially along the lower edge. With the armorial bookplates of Count H. de la Bedoyère (front paste-down) and of R.C.G. de Pixerécourt (second free end-paper). A lovely book. Henry Corneille Agrippa, as the biography at the beginning calls him, was born at Nettesheim near Cologne in 1486. He served and traveled with many noblemen, including as a captain under Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. Best known throughout the XVIc and XVIIc as an occultist, Agrippa s magnum opus is the three-volume De occulta philosophia (1533, though a draft existed as early as 1510). The treatise of which the present item is a translation is the De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus declamatio (Speech about the nobility and excellence of the female sex), which was published in 1529. It is widely considered to be an attempt to secure the patronage or at least the favor of Margaret, daughter of Maximilian I. Of that original edition, (Antwerp: Apud Michaelum Hillenium, though there appears to have been a printing in Cologne as well), only eight copies are recorded on WorldCat. In the treatise, Agrippa seeks to demonstrate the overall superiority of women, using not only scripture Adam was born in a field but brought to Paradise, Eve was born in Paradise but also the Christian Cabala. The Cabala based on the Jewish interpretative tradition of magic, mysticism, numerology and astrology demonstrates, according to Agrippa, that, since Eve s name is closer to God s than is Adam s, womankind has more of the substance of divinity than has mankind. The text was translated into French sometime in the second quarter of the XVIc, again in 1686 and then finally in 1713, anonymously, but named by Quérard as the nephew of a doctor of theology by the name of d Arnaudin. After 1713, there are several additional French translations. The appeal of the work a tiny countercurrent against the sea of misogyny is evergreen. The item is quite rare, with only nine copies in institutional libraries, and no records at auction. The two bookplates add considerable interest to the item. The earlier belongs to René-Charles Guilbert de Pixerécourt, a French dramatist of some renown. He served as the director of the Théâtre royal de l Opéra-Comique from 1824 to 1827, and was a founding member of the Société de Bibliophiles français. He retired from Paris to Nancy in 1838, and his library was sold in Paris in 1839 (our item is lot 1519, sold 18 February). Noël-François-Henri Huchet, Count de La Bedoyère (1782 1861), was among the greatest French bibliomanes of the XIXc (he was a member of Pixerécourt s Société de Bibliophiles). Two sales of his books one in 1837, the other in 1862 fetched enormous sums. This item was sold in the 1862 sale (lot 1690, sold 17 February). Not in Brunet; Pixérecourt sale 1519, La Bédoyère sale 1690.
Published by: François Babuty, 1713
Vendor: Pryor-Johnson Rare Books, ABAA
