Recently Acquired Rare and Antiquarian Materials

This month's rare and antiquarian materials bring together summer reading for all tastes, including, appropriately enough, Giovanni Lapi's treatise on why Rome, contrary to popular opinion, need not be avoided during the summer and Cadet de Vaux's helpful study on the dangers of burying the dead in town--another good reason to visit Rome at any time, since the eternal city even in antiquity had required the vast majority of the dead to be buried outside the city walls. For those whose pleasure reading privileges the heroic, we feature two works by women: Alexandrine Sophie de Bawr's collection of stories and Teresa Bandettini's translation of the Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. Finally, if your tastes, regardless of the season, incline toward science, we have the Duchess of Parma's precautions in a time of cholera and Terrien's study of hysteria and neurasthenia among peasants, which, à propos of longer and warmer days, he attributes in part to consuming too much white wine!

 Bawr, Alexandrine Sophie de, Histoires Fausses Et Vraies ... Paris: Librairie de Fournier, 1835.

"Uncommon first edition of this collection of seven stories, one of which, Le Schelling, is set in Dumfriesshire, Scotland and four others which contain female heroes’ names in the titles. Alexandrine-Sophie Goury de Champgrand, Countess Saint-Simon, baroness Bawr (1773-1860) had been married first to Saint Simon, the political theorist and founder of the eponymous utopian movement, and later to the Russian-German count Bawr, who died in 1810 in a carriage accident. She was a composer, pianist and performer of Lieder and operas, playwright, and author. With the publication of the essay Histoire de musique which appeared in the periodical Encyclopédie des dames in 1823 she became the first female historian of music."

Cadet de Vaux, Antonio Alexis. (1785). Essai historique sur les lieux et les dangers des sépultures & des inhumations dans les villes & dans les églises. Paris: chez la Veuve Valade, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1785.

"Rare first edition of this treatise by the renowned French chemist and philanthropist Antonio Cadet de Vaux, on the dangers of burial sites in towns and churches. Cadet de Vaux opens: “The dangers of tombs in churches, or in cemeteries placed at the heart of towns, has long excited the zeal of several famous doctors. Nonetheless, the abuse continues”. He discusses the traditional reasons for burials in occupied areas, and the history of the regulations surrounding the practice, before describing some of the dangers associated with burial in confined spaces. One instance he reports is the case of 149 mourners out of 170 who were the victim of a putrid fever after attending a burial at Saulieu in Burgundy, while he also notes the deaths of 15 people after the burial of a village squire near Nantes."

Lapi, Giovanni Girolamo. Ragionamento contra la volgare opinione di non potere venire a Roma nella estate …. Roma: Stamperia di Antonio de’ Rossi, 1749.

"Rare first edition of this essay on the air of Rome and its environs, by the Roman doctor and author Giovanni Girolamo Lapi. It was common practice among those who could afford it to leave Rome during the summer, and the popular view, as Lapi notes, is that “nobody should come to Rome during the summer, if he does not wish to be at risk of becoming dangerously ill”. Lapi examines the climate, the city’s topography, the use of technologies such as aquaducts, and his observations on disease, while drawing on historical evidence from writers dating from Cicero’s time onwards, to show that Rome is perfectly healthy during summer; or at least not sufficiently hazardous to merit leaving (he does describe some of the illnesses that are common in the city, and means of treating them).  Lapi also published works on the treatment of smallpox and on Roman flint."

Maria Luisa, Duchess of Parma. DISPOSIZIONE SOVRANA che prescrive delle cautele sanitarie per tener lontano il Cholera morbus. Parma, 1831.

"A very good copy of this uncommon decree, issued by Maria Luisa, Duchess of Parma, detailing the precautions taken by the city of Parma in anticipation of the cholera outbreak that was expected to arrive. The decree describes the limits on goods that could be brought in to the city, and the certification required for goods sourced from cities known to be affected by cholera, before giving directions for quarantine for travellers and for cattle, and for the disinfection of incoming mail. The final section describes the criminal penalties for those found to be contravening these regulations, and is followed by templates for health certificates for goods, travellers, and livestock."

Quintus, Teresa Bandettini, Leonardo Nardini, Francesco Rosaspina, and Angelica Kauffmann.Paralippomeni d'Omero. Modena: Dalla Società Tipografica., 1815.

"Rare first edition of this translation into Italian verse of the Posthomerica of Quintus of Smyrna, by the Tuscan poet Teresa Bandettini-Landucci. The Posthomerica is the only surviving Greek epic that gives a full narrative of the Trojan War between the Iliad and the Odyssey. The author lived, to the best of our knowledge, in the late 4th century AD, and his work covers the period after the end of the Iliad, until the end of the Trojan war, in a series of fourteen books, whose style is clearly based on that of Homer, but which also draw on the same cyclic poems as those which inspired Virgil and others. The first printed edition was produced by Aldus Manutius in 1504. The translator, Bandettini (1763-1837), was born in Lucca, and entered into the Arcadia under the name Amarilli Etrusca. A noted critic of the romantic movement, she was one of most important improvisatory poets of her time, greatly esteemed by the likes of Mascheroni, Bettinelli and Alfieri."

Terrien, Maxime. L'hystérie et la neurasthénie chez le paysan. Angers: J. Siraudeau, 1906.

"First edition of this unusual study of hysteria and neurasthenia in rural populations, by the Breton physician and author Firmin Terrien. While acknowledging the popular conception that nervous diseases were “des maladies presque exclusivement urbaines”, the result of endless balls, spectacles, and other diversions, Terrien argues that despite the calm of rural life, and the lack of grand ambition in the peasant, neuropathologies are extremely common in country dwellers. This he attributes primarily to the peasant’s appetite for alcohol (5 or 6 litres of wine per day is, he claims, par for the course for a peasant of the Bocage, made worse by the fact that it is white wine), offering over forty case histories."

Valerio Magrelli visits the Bay Area and Stanford

The Department of French & Italian is pleased to present A talk by Valerio Magrelli on 20th-Century Italian Poetry (The talk will be in Italian.) Wednesday, May 15th, 5pm Pigott Hall (260), Room 216 Valerio Magrelli is arguably the most accomplished living Italian poet. He is also a scholar of French and Italian literature. He studied philosophy at the University of Rome and is now a professor at the Universities of Pisa and Cassino. His first collection of poetry was published in 1980, when he was just twenty-three years old. He has since published several collections published by Mondadori, Einaudi, and Laterza, and he has also edited important anthologies of contemporary poetry. He is the author of several academic studies on French literary traditions and figures such as Joubert, Valéry, Baudelaire, and others. He has written introductions to Italian editions of important works by Apollinaire, Gide, Marivaux, Rostand, Conrad, Auden, Prévert, Blok, Beaumarchais, and Dumas, as well as editions of work by Italian writers and artists. He contributes actively to Italian newspapers and periodicals and been the recipient of several prestigious awards such as the following prizes -- the Mondello, the Viareggio, the Frascati, the Brancati, the Montale, and the Feltrinelli, in addition to the Premio Nazionale Letterario Pisa. His work has been translated into several languages including English, French, and Spanish. Click here for his works at Stanford University Libraries Magrelli will also be speaking at the Italian Cultural Institute in San Francisco on May 16 at 6:30pm.

New Arrivals in French and Italian Studies

A selection of books that have recently made their way to the library . . .

French Works

Cuillé, Tili Boon, and Karyna Szmurlo. Staël's Philosophy of the Passions: Sensibility, Society, and the Sister Arts. Lewisburg [Pennsylvania]: Bucknell University Press, 2013.

Dufour-Maître, Myriam. Pratiques de Corneille. Mont-Saint-Aignan: Publications des universités de Rouen et du Havre, 2012.

Furno, Martine., and Raphaële Mouren. Auteur, traducteur, collaborateur, imprimeur... qui écrit?. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2012.

Holmes, Diana, and David Looseley. Imagining the Popular In Contemporary French Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013.

Jaccottet, Philippe. L'encre serait de l'ombre : notes, proses et poèmes choisis par l'auteur 1946-2008. Paris: Gallimard, 2011.

Mächler Tobar, Ernesto. Voyageurs français dans les Amériques. Paris: Indigo & Côté-Femmes, 2012.

Mabanckou, Alain. Tais-toi et meurs : roman. Paris: Branche, 2012.

Maruani, Margaret., and Monique Meron. Un siècle de travail des femmes en France: 1901-2011. Paris: Découverte, 2012.

Ory, Pascal. Villes sous l'Occupation : l'histoire des Français au quotidien. Paris: Express, 2012. 


Italian Works

Carnelos, Laura. Con libri alla mano : l'editoria di larga diffusione a Venezia tra Sei e Settecento. 1. ed. Milano: UNICOPLI, 2012.

Carrai, Stefano. Dante e l'antico : l'emulazione dei classici nella "Commedia". Firenze: Edizioni del Galluzzo per la Fondazione Ezio Franceschini, 2012.

Giorgetta, Franco. Hortus librorum, liber hortorum : l'idea di giardino dal XV al XX secolo attraverso le fonti a stampa. [Milano, Italy]: Il polifilo, 2010.

La Favia, Louis Marcello., and Dante Alighieri. Chanzona ddante : circa un poema sconosciuto attribuito a Dante. Ravenna (Italia): Centro dantesco. 2012.

Orbicciani, Bonagiunta, and Aldo Menichetti. Rime. Firenze: Edizioni del Galluzzo per la Fondazione Ezio Franceschini, 2012.

Orlando, Caterina. Una città per le regine : istituzioni e società a Siracusa tra XIII e XV secolo. Caltanissetta: S. Sciascia, 2012.

Pellegrini, Daniela. Una donna di troppo : storia di una vita politica "singolare". Milano: Fondazione Badaracco, 2012.

Ricolfi, Luca, Barbara Loera, Silvia Testa, and Gianfranco Baldini. L'italia al voto: le elezioni politiche della Repubblica. [Turin, Italy]: UTET libreria, 2012.

Rondena, Elena. La letteratura concentrazionaria : opere di autori italiani deportati sotto il nazifascismo. Novara: Interlinea, 2013.

Somaini, Francesco. Geografie politiche italiane tra Medio Evo e Rinascimento. Milano: Officina libraria, 2012.

Recently Acquired Rare and Antiquarian Materials

Our most recent additions to the collection feature all things French, with a special emphasis on instruction.  Whether it is training in rhetoric for conscientious 17th-century French school boys or the teaching of literature to 19th-century women, the works on offer stress improvement or, in the words of one title, 'perfectionner'.  Hygiene is the concern of the Réglemens à l'usage de l'intendance sanitaire de Marseille, while a different sort of perfectionism is at work in the anonymous attack on Louis-Philippe and the shallow 19th-century Parisian morals in Les Dangers du nouveau débarqué dans Paris. 

Annales patriotiques du Comté-Venaissin. Carpentras: Proget, 1790.

"The Annales patriotique were favorable to the return of Avignon to France, in June 1790, while the Nouvelle annales profited from a short break, of eight days, from the publication of the Annales, in order to appear and take a new stand; their position was more traditional, attached to papal sovereignty and reflecting the state of mind of the rural populations of the Comtat."

Dampmartin, Anne-Henri Cabet, Essai de littérature: a l'usage des dames. A Amsterdam: Chez Gaspard Heintzen ..., 1794

"Rare first edition, and the author's own copy, of this most attractive summary of literature, written for the education of women, by the French nobleman, philosopher, and historian Anne-Henri Cabet, vicomte de Dampmartin (1755-1825) and published in the Netherlands where Dampmartin had taken refuge.  The author assumes very little knowledge . . . .  In addition to a comprehensive study of French literature, Dampmartin discusses writers from across Europe, both ancient and modern, citing German, Swiss, Italian and English authors and their works, and including such luminaries as Hume, Locke, Gibbon and Pope."

Institutiones oratoriae : Isagoge ad geographiam. [France. 16--?].

The first part of the text, Institutiones Oratorie, is a rhetorical textbook, with citations from Virgil, Horace, Cicero, and Aeschylus, and a section on the cultivation of memory (De Memoria artificiali' pages 190-9).  The title echoes Quintilian's first-century Institution Oratoria, translated as The Orator's Education in the latest Loeb edition, whose editor (Donald A. Russell) notes that 17th and early 18th century 'French schools, not only Port Royal, where Racine was taught, but all the Jesuit colléges (such as that where Voltaire went to school) taught a thoroughly Quintilianic form of the subject' (vol. 1. p. 26).  The second part of the text, Isagoge ad Geographiam ('Introduction to Geography'), is in the same hand as the Insitutiones Oratoriae.  It covers the globe, the poles, the tropics, zones, latitude and longitude, winds, seas, and mountains. . . .  It has not been possible to assign an author to these two apparently unpublished works, but to judge from the binding and from citations of the vernacular in the text, he was undoubtedly a Frenchman.

Les Dangers du nouveau débarqué dans Paris, en face des demoiselles et dames aux doux regards de la basse et haute volée, et des malins, filous et escrocs répandus dans les bals.. Paris: B. Renault, 1847.

"Two popular publications embellished with woodcuts, the first is a depiction of the superficial values of the capital with a short chapter on the Parisian cafes, the second a 'scandalous' leaflet that is quite brutal in its consideration of Louis-Philippe and his entourage."

Millot, Jacques-André . L'art d'améliorer et perfectionner les générations humaines. 2è édition, augmentée. Paris: Impr. Migneret.(n180).

"Second expanded edition (first 1801) of this work on the care and well-being of children, effectively a companion volume to Millot's successful self-help manual on procreation of 1800, L'Art de procréer les sexes."[Special Collections of the Stanford University Libraries also has this volume.] "Once again addressed to a female readership, having previously outlined his sysem for how best to determine the sex of one's child, Millot here turns his attention to the all important matter of how to care for the child, through a system of moral and physical education.  Though believing that one could determine the sex of a child, Millot nevertheless felt that it was not possible to improve the moral fibre of a child at the point of conception.  it was therefore necessary to provide a suitable upbringing to rehabilitate the moral dimensions of man:  indeed it was a matter of national importance."

Nouvelle serie des vignettes de la fonderie Laurent et Deberny. Paris: Rue des Marais Saint-Germain, 17, 1844.

"An extremely rare example of engraved vignettes from the Laurent et Deberny foundry, the successor to the foundry established by Balzac in 1827 with the financial support of his mistress, Laure de Berny."

Réglemens à l'usage de l'intendance sanitaire de Marseille : suivis des loi, ordonnances, instructions ministérielles et autres documens concernant la police sanitaire. --. Marseille: De l'Imprimerie de Marius Olive, 1836.

"Uncommon legal companion setting out 'des loi, ordonnance, instructions ministérielles et autres documens' relating to the provision of public health and sanitary legislation and regulation in the port of Marseilles.  The first section lists the main duties, responsibilities and regulations relating to the principal public health officials, with subsequent sections outlining the measures to be taken when introducing a quarantine, and the rules relating to 'purification'.  A number of extracts are included of laws and ordonnances relating to sanitary policing, together with a number of tables setting out areas of responsibility for officials, as well as a 'tarif des droits sanitaires'.  Further instructions are given, notably guidelines on how to recognize contagious diseases such as plague, yellow fever and typhus, and health questions to ask all incoming vessels."

New Arrivals in French and Italian Studies

A selection of books that have recently made their way to the library . . .

Italian Works

Canzian, Dario and Simonetti, Remy. Acque e territorio nel Veneto medievale. 1. ed. Roma: Viella, 2012.

Dante Alighieri. Nuova edizione commentata delle opere di Dante ; pubblicazioni del Centro Pio Rajna. Roma: Salerno, 2012.

Formica, Marina. Lo specchio turco : immagini dell'altro e riflessi del sé nella cultura italiana d'età moderna. Roma: Donzelli, 2012.

Franke, William. Dante and the Sense of Transgression: 'the Trespass of the Sign'. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

Ganapini, Luigi. Voci dalla guerra civile : italiani nel 1943-1945. Bologna: Il mulino, 2012.

Guglielmi, M., and Iacoli, Giulio. Piani sul mondo : le mappe nell'immaginazione letteraria. 1. ed. Macerata: Quodlibet, 2012.

Riall, Lucy, Under the Volcano: Revolution In a Sicilian Town. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Tabacchi, Stefano. Maria De' Medici. Roma: Salerno, 2012.



French Works

Amalvi, Christian., and Julie Deramond. Jeanne d'Arc entre la terre et le ciel du Midi : regards méridionaux sur la bonne Lorraine (XVe-XXIe siècle). Paris: Houdiard, 2012.

Baecque, Antoine de. Paris by Hollywood. Paris: Flammarion, 2012.

Bankovsky, Miriam, & Le Goff, Alice. Penser la reconnaissance, entre théorie critique et philosophie française contemporaine. Paris: CNRS, 2012.

Basso, Hélène, and Michèle Gally. Être poète au temps de Charles d'Orléans (XVe siècle). Avignon: Editions universitaires d'Avignon, 2012.

Bayard, Pierre. Aurais-je été résistant ou bourreau?. [Paris]: Minuit, 2013.

Béneytou, Jean-Pierre. De Lattre, la campagne d'Allemagne 1945, ou, Comment la France a gagné son siège de membre permanent du Conseil de sécurité. Panazol: Lavauzelle, 2012.

Dantzig, Charles. A propos des chefs-d'oeuvre. Paris: Grasset, 2013.

Du Gardin, Louis, Emmanuel Buron, and Guillaume Peureux. Les premieres addresses du chemin de Parnasse. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2012.

Flaugh, Christian, Operation Freak: Narrative, Identity, and the Spectrum of Bodily Abilities. Montréal, QC: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012.

Gury, Christian. Roger Peyrefitte et ses Arcadies. Paris: Non lieu, 2012.

Heckmann, Hubert., and Nicolas Lenoir. Mimétisme, violence, sacré : approche anthropologique de la littérature narrative médiévale. Orléans: Paradigme, 2012.

Jousset, Philippe. En proie aux mots : action et affection en littérature. Paris: Hermann, 2012.

Kalifa, Dominique. Les bas-fonds : histoire d'un imaginaire. Paris: Seuil, 2013.

Krasnoff, Lindsay Sarah, The Making of Les Bleus: Sport In France, 1958-2010. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013.

Lagrée, Marie-Clarté. C'est moy que je peins : figures de soi à l'automne de la Renaissance. Paris: Presses de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2012.

Marcowitz, Reiner., and Hélène Miard-Delacroix. 50 ans de relations Franco-allemandes. Paris: Nouveau Monde, 2012.

Montémont, Véronique, and Christelle Reggiani. Georges Perec artisan de la langue. Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2012.

NDiaye, Marie. Ladivine: roman. [Paris]: Gallimard, 2013.

Roger-Vasselin, Bruno. Maurice Scève, ou, L'emblème de la perfection enchevêtrée : Délie objet de plus haute vertu (1544). 1re éd. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2012.

Schmitt, Éric-Emmanuel. Les deux messieurs de Bruxelles. Paris: A. Michel, 2012.

Steiner, Anne, Le goût de l'émeute : manifestations et violences de rue dans Paris et sa banlieue à la "Belle époque". Montreuil: Echappée, 2012.

Tadié, Jean-Yves, and Blanche Cerquiglini. Le roman d'hier à demain. [Paris]: Gallimard, 2012.

Theurot, Jacky. Au temps de Madame Mahaut, comtesse d'Artois, de Bourgogne palatine et dame de Salins : aspects de la vie comtoise (1285-1329). Besançon: Cêtre, 2012.

Wievorka, Olivier. Histoire de la Résistance : 1940-1945. [Paris]: Perrin, 2013.

Recently Acquired Rare and Antiquarian Materials

With Halloween barely behind us, this month's selections in rare and antiquarian books include works advocating reform of French burial laws and formal admonitions against premature inhumation--a very serious problem prior to the advent of sophisticated medical tools for separating the dead from the undead.  We also recently acquired a set of the final lectures given by the celebrated French scholar Pierre Bayle shortly before his death, a nineteenth-century Italian guide to how magnetism could stave off death by curing all sorts of diseases from cholera to hernias, and finally, for scholars needing ideas for next year's Halloween costumes, a seventeenth-century collection by Giovanni and Marco Antonio Canini of images representing the most famous monarchs, philosophers, poets and orators of antiquity.


Italian Works

Canini, Giovanni Angelo, Marco Antonio Canini, and Ignazio de Lazari. Iconografia: cioè disegni d'imagini de famosissimi monarchi, regi, filososi, poeti ed oratori dell'antichità. In Roma: Nella Stamparia d'Ignatio de' Lazari, 1669.


Pratica del magnetismo in ordine alla conoscenza ed alla guarigione delle malattie. Torino: Tipografia Fodratti, 1874.
From the catalog: “Only edition of this small, popular and comprehensive guide to the use of magnetism in the diagnosis and treatment of disease—the author believes all diseases are potentially curable by magnetism. Divided into sections on the cure of acute diseases such as intermittent fever, inflammation of the brain, cholera, rheumatism, hernia, spontaneous haemorrhage; . . . . The final section concerns experimental magnetism . . . . Testimonials of effectiveness are given in some places."

French Works

Ancelot, Marguerite-Louise-Virginie. Théâtre complet de Madame Ancelot. Nouv. éd., ornée de vingt gravures sur bois par M. Porret et de vingt têtes d'expression lithographiées. Dessins de Madame Ancelot. Paris: Beck, 1848.
This collection is the most complete edition of Ancelot's plays. As she noted in the dedication to her daughter, Ancelot's works were mainly focused on the situation of women, particularly their characters, their ideas and their impressions of the different circumstances of their existence.

Pierre Bayle

Bayle Pierre. Système de philosophie. Contenant la Logique et la Métaphysique. Imprimé par ordre du Roi [Frédéric II].Berlin, Samuel Pitra (impr. de G.J. Decker, imprimeur du Roi), 1785.
Original posthumous and unique edition of those lectures that Bayle gave at Sedan and then at Rotterdam, shortly before his death, and which Friedrich II had printed, in 1785, for his and for his great-nephew Friedrich Wilhelm's personal use. Contains the celebrated "discours préliminaire": Ce que c'est que la philosophie.


Boillet, Charles. Mort apparente et victimes ignorées, par le Dr Ch. Boillet. Paris: V.-A. Delahaye, 1876.
Boillet's entry "in the ongoing fight of reasonable medical men for reform in French law on inhumation, with an eye toward avoiding the perils of premature burial."

Gaillard, Xavier. Du culte des tombeaux et du danger des inhumations dans certains cas. Paris: chez l'auteur, 1852.
"A characteristic medical-philosophical work on the dangers of premature burial, with a certain amount of anecdote, and including proposals for government-funded watch houses (where corpses might be kept in case of revival), an examination of the signs of death, artificial respiration and other revival techniques, and sundry reflections on death itself." (dealer's catalog)

Graffigny, Henri de, pseud. (Marquis, Raoul). La Ville Arienne. Roman Scientifique d'Aventures et de voyages. Illustrations de Jose Roy. Paris: M. Vermot, (1911).
With wonderful dramatic pictorial wrappers, the front wrapper depicting a balloon suspended dangerously close above a raging sea. Graffigny (b.1863), as he chose to be known, was a pioneer in science fiction literature that featured such themes as aeronautics, space travel and planetary voyages. This is a tale of a monstrous balloon and life aboard the equivalent of an equally monstrous ocean-liner held aloft by the balloon, which is tethered over Paris and visited by the Commissioners of Paris, etc. One day the cable breaks, it traverses the ocean, and is "shipwrecked" over the Sahara. In fact there was a later edition, in 1936, published as Naufrages au Sahara.

Le Brun, Ponce Denis Ecouchard (1729-1807). Odes Républicaines au Peuple Français, Composées en Brumaire, l’An II. Par le Citoyen Le Brun; précédées de l’Ode Patriotique sur les événemens de l’année 1792: Imprimées par ordre du Comité d’Instruction Publique. A Paris, de l’Imprimerie Nationale des Lois, An III de la République française. [1795].
Le Brun was one of the most celebrated poets of the Revolutionary era, hailed by Sainte-Beuve as an important precursor of romanticism.