I eventually found a copy of this book for myself – a first edition, given at Ebay.fr... At such an affordable price, this is no bargain, it’s a gift I say. It is bound in full contemporary calf and features the additional epigrams and the mention Et se donnent au Palais. But there is something else about it, on the title page... A line has been darkened with ink, at some point in the last 345 years. First, I thought it was to hide an ex-libris, as often. But I took a closer look – and deciphered the hidden words : Premier Volume. Now, I started to wonder : who had interest in darkening this line, apart from... the author or the bookseller themselves ? Come on... could this be ? After all, I can also imagine a zealed bibliophilist making sure nobody would be looking for Volume the Second. I really don’t know, and will never. The simple idea that it might be is enough for me, though - thank God, some answers are not on the internet... yet.
(c) Thibault Ehrengardt – 2012.
Collation of the first edition : (Paris, 1667) 1 vol. in-12, title page, 3 pages, preface (2 pages), 228 pages.
