147 - [LA MOTHE LE VAYER, François de]. *Hexameron rustique, or Six Days Spent in the Countryside*...

[LA MOTHE LE VAYER, François de]. *Hexameron rustique, or Six Days Spent in the Countryside*... Cologne, Pierre Brenussen, 1671. In-12 (13.5 x 8 cm), beige calfskin, ribbed spine, gilt title, place and year of publication on the tail. 156 pp. Binding slightly rubbed. Slight pinholes and water stains at the corners. An edition published in Cologne by Pierre Brenussen, one year after the first, of this satirical work—a model of “erudite libertinism”—which was placed on the Index shortly after its publication. It features a group of young scholars—characters behind whom the author and five of his friends are hidden—who, over the course of six sessions, engage in impertinent debates on classical literature, philosophy, and theology. The exchanges blend classical references (quotations in Greek and Latin), philosophical reflections in the humanist tradition of Montaigne, and remarks that are at times free-spirited, playful, or even risqué. François de La Mothe Le Vayer (Paris, 1588–1672), a magistrate, philosopher, and royal historiographer, tutor to the Duke of Orléans and later to Louis XIV, is one of the leading representatives of “erudite libertinism” (or “libertinism of the mind”), a school of thought that René Pintard defined and described in his seminal dissertation. It was a movement of free thought that challenged dogmas and conventional wisdom, seeking to emancipate itself from metaphysics and religious morality (e.g., Molière’s *Dom Juan*), by practicing the art of dissimulation and secrecy. A fine copy, bound in the 19th century.