Anacréon, Sapho, Bion et Moschus, traduction nouvelle en prose, suivie de La Veillée des fêtes de Vénus, et d'un choix de piéces de différens auteurs. Mar M. M*** C*** [J.J. Moutonnet de Clairfons]

Royal 8vo (218 x 140mm.) [4], iv, 280,  printed on papier d'Hollande, title printed in red and black, engraved frontispiece, head & tail-pieces engraved by Massard after Eisen. Paphos et se trouve a Paris chez Le Boucher, 1773

Bound with: MUSAEUS. Héro et Léandre, poëme de Musée [in prose by the same translator, with extracts from the verse translation of C. Marot] On y a joint la traduction de plusieurs idylles de Théocrite. Par M. M***.C**. Sestos, et se trouve à Paris, chez Le Boucher, 1774 , xvi, 104p., title printed in red and black  engraved frontispiece by Massard after Eisen, woodut head-piece

2 works in 1 volume,  French binding  c. 1890 by Chambolle Duru  of green morocco, triple gilt fillet on covers, spine gilt in 5 compartments with lettering piece, inner gilt turn-ins, all edges marbled and gilt

Jean Jacques MOUTONNET (1740-1813) was a French hellenist born in Le Mans, a friend of Rousseau, and for many years an employee of the French postal service. He was the author of a small number of works, including a history of philosophy, a work on the French navy, and a translation of Dante's Inferno. One of his works is a highly entertaining poem (with notes) on cats 'La Galéide, ou le Chat de la nature' oublished  in Galéopolis by Galéophile  'rue des chats, a l'enseigne de Matou' in l'an 6 (1798). The present work also contains an essay on the 16th-century Italian poet  known as the Mantuan (Baptista Spagnuoli), as mentioned by Holofernes in Love's Labours's Lost', whose pastoral poetry was widely read and printed. Moutonnet's  library was sold 21 September, 1813.

The first work in addition to those works mentioned on the title contains also some prose translations from the Greek Anthology, Catullus, Horace, the Pervigilium Veneris, and other offerings by Sannazaro, Marullus, Guarini, Joannes Secundus and André-François [Bourreau] Deslandes (1690-1757),  a civil servant in the French naval ministry, who was born in Pondichery and came to France as a child. He was the author of a number of works on the history of philosophy and the navy, as well as a 'Pigmalion ou la statue animée.' The text translated 'Loisirs d'un poète à la campagne'  was published in Latin as 'Poetae rusticantis litteratum otium'  by Lintot in London in 1713 (ed. 2da) and reprinted in 1752 (3rd ed.Paris?).  He is the subject of a monograph by Elisabetta Mastrogiacomo, published in Italian (2010) and also in French (2015).

 

Cohen-De Ricci 79-80; Giles Barber, Waddeson Catalogue no. 16; Cioranescu 67628 and 67629.

Stock Code: 252833