RABELAIS, François

The Sciomachy and feasts made in Rome Lyon, Sébastien Gryph[ius], 1549 A SUPERB COPY FOR THE DUKE DE LA VALLIÈRE, BOUND FOR HIM. THE EXEMPLAIR ALSO JOINS THE LIBRARY OF WILLIAM BECKFORD [bound in:] [Guillaume Le Rouille], Epistre des Rossignols du Parc d'Alençon. 4 ff. from Recueil de l'antiquité prexcellence de Gaule et des Gauloys, Poitiers, 1546 -- Mario Equicola, Apologie de Marus Equicolus gentilhomme Italian contre les mesdisantz de la nation françoise, Paris, for Vincent Sertenas, 1550. Booklet G reassembled ORIGINAL EDITION In-8 (145 x 96mm) COLLATION : A-B8 : 16 leaves ANNOTATIONS : some marginal notes, written in brown ink, by a contemporary hand 18th century BINDING. Blonde calf, gilt filleting, long spine decorated, titling in long, gilt edges PROVENANCE: Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc, duc de La Vallière (1708-1780; his sale, Paris, 1783, no. 5095: "in-8. v. f.") -- William Beckford (1760-1844; his sale, Hamilton Palace, 1882, no. 113) -- Bulletin Morgand, November 1884, no. 9498 -- Pierre Jammes (his sale, Paris, 12-13 October 2010, no. 326) Light wetness and some foxing Rawles and Screech list eight copies of La Sciomachie of which only two are still in private hands. To these should be added a copy presented on the auction market (Paris, December 5 and 6, 2002, n° 25). A sciomachie means "a simulacrum and representation of battle, both by water and by land" (Rabelais). Under the title Sciomachie, Rabelais publishes the account of the festivities organized in Rome by the cardinal Jean du Bellay on the occasion of the birth of the second son of Henri II, Louis d'Orléans. The Prince's first name is left blank in the introduction, indicating that this text was printed very shortly after the birth and before the child's baptism. To celebrate this birth, the cardinal Jean du Bellay, assisted by Rabelais, organized in Rome a series of grandiose popular celebrations. The Bulletin Morgand recalls in its notice that "Rabelais, in 1549, had taken refuge in Italy where he came to seek protection from his old friend Cardinal Du Bellay, who had retired to Rome. Rabelais was, at that time, violently attacked". Rabelais, during this second and last stay in Rome (1547-1549), played "less the role of a doctor than that of a secretary, perhaps an organizer of festivals for which his talent particularly designated him" (Mireille Huchon). When Rabelais published La Sciomachie in 1549, he had already published most of his work, Pantugruel, Gargantua and The Third Book, all three of which were condemned by the Sorbonne. Michael Screech has pointed out that this text "constitutes, in one important respect, a bridge between the Tiers Livre and the Quart Livre of 1552 in terms of some of the author's concerns." The important point is a passage at the beginning of La Sciomachie where Rabelais states that the news of the birth of the young Prince was known in Rome among the Roman bankers on the very day of the event at the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. For him, such a fact is not without precedent and it is neither a well calculated guess, nor even a "prodigious and admirable thing". His assertions remain vague, but Screech elucidates them by confronting them with other passages of the Quart Livre: "In the Renaissance, an event that seemed prodigious could be explained in various ways: by the intervention of a messenger of God, by the powers of guardian angels, or by the rediscovery of carrier pigeons. In the Quart Livre of 1552, and probably in La Sciomachie, Rabelais chose carrier pigeons, which does not imply that he did not believe in guardian angels or other messengers of God. The instantaneousness of communication, the immediate transmission of thought, by pigeon or by spirit, has always fascinated Rabelais. What would it be like for him today, in the age of the Internet? BIBLIOGRAPHY : USTC 9951 -- Tchemerzine, V, 332 -- Stephen Rawles and Michael Screech, A New Rabelais bibliography, Geneva, 1987, n° 103, pp. 512-515 -- Michael Screech, Rabelais, Paris, 1992, pp. 409-413 -- Mireille Huchon, Rabelais, Paris, 2011 -- Brunet, III, 998 (for the Epistle)