FÉNELON (François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon)]. Les avantures de Thelemaque, fils d'Ulysse [signature to the title: Le Juste ]In French, manuscript on paperFrance , circa 17001040 pp. preceded by 4 ff. of endpapers and followed by 3 ff. of endpapers, cursive handwriting in brown ink, text inscribed in a frame drawn in red ink. Engraved portrait of François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, placed opposite the title: " Estienne Desrochers sculp[sit] 1699 et exc[udit] rue St Jacques près les Mathurins ". Bound in 18th century black morocco, spine with five raised bands, framed with triple gilt fillets on the boards, roulette on the edges, red morocco lining with gilt frame with gilt fleur-de-lys at the corners, front endpapers lined with marbled paper, gilt edges (binding with some scratches or spidermites, jaws rubbed, corners dulled) Size : 155 x 206 mm. Manuscript certainly copied to defy censorship, in a neat binding. Fénelon's Telemachus was, for two centuries, from 1699 to 1914, one of the most reprinted and read books in all of literature. The first copies (published in 1699 without the author's consent when Fénelon, who had displeased Louis XIV, was already relegated to his bishopric of Cambrai) were destroyed as soon as they were published, so clandestine networks took charge of distributing the work. The work was copied and circulated in manuscript form, thus defying the royal ban.