269 - [SAND] BLANC, François, known as La Goutte. Poetry in the Dauphiné dialect. Grenoble: Malhérou. Drawings by D. Rahoult; engravings by E. Dardelet. Preface by George Sand.

[SAND] BLANC, François, known as La Goutte. Poetry in the Dauphiné dialect. Grenoble: Malhérou. Drawings by D. Rahoult; engravings by E. Dardelet. Preface by George Sand. An excellent illustrated edition of the poems in the Dauphiné dialect by François Blanc, known as La Goutte, an important literary and iconographic source for the history of Grenoble, with an original preface by George Sand. A complete copy of the second part, published ten years later, in a full binding with a mosaic spine signed by Martin. Grenoble, Rahoult and Dardelet, 1864. 2 parts in 1 large quarto volume (250 x 320 mm), full midnight blue morocco, spine with raised bands accented by a gold dotted line, double gold frame with richly ornamented panels in gold tooling framing a central medallion in mosaic of havana calfskin, author and title in gold lettering, bookbinder’s name stamped at the foot, triple gold frame on the covers, gold interior lace, double gold fillet with notches, guilloché caps, gold head. Pastiche binding signed by Martin. IX and 135 pages, numerous woodcut illustrations, text framed by a black fillet. Slight scuffing on the binding, mainly at the corners. A fine edition of the first collection of poems in the Dauphinois dialect (specifically, the Grenoble dialect) by François Blanc, known as La Goutte (1662–1742), a grocer from Grenoble who was “crippled and ravaged by gout to an extreme degree, though only 46 years old.” In it, the author provides a meticulous account—in verse and in 18th-century Grenoble dialect—of the September 1733 floods that devastated Grenoble and its region. It is illustrated with countless drawings by Diodore Rahoult, woodcut by Etienne Dardelet. Original preface by George Sand, who pays tribute to the work of Diodore Rahoult as well as to the poet Blanc la Goutte, “one of her illustrious dead, yet unknown beyond her own horizons, and worthy of being heard and appreciated by all of France.” [Vicaire I, 812–813; Carteret III, 95–96]. Included, bound with the sequel published in 1874 by the same publishers and illustrated by the same artists (X and 78 pp.), are two supplementary pieces that are often missing: *Coupi de la Lettra*, a copy of the letter written by François Blanc to one of his friends regarding the flood that occurred in Grenoble on December 20, 1740; followed by *Jacquety de la Comare* by the same author, as well as a glossary by Michal-Ladichère. A fine, attractively bound copy.