122 - [CURIOSA]. *Le Nouveau Merdiana* or *Scatological Manual*.

[CURIOSA]. *Le Nouveau Merdiana* or *Scatological Manual*. A rare illustrated collection of scatological texts drawn from famous authors, including Rabelais and Swift, in a pleasant later binding. Paris and elsewhere [Lille], by a Society of Uninhibited People [Six-Horemans Printing House], 1870. In-8, wine-colored half-maroquin, spine with cold-stamped raised bands, title in gilt letters, covers preserved (modern binding). VII, 160 pp., plus 1 f. of tables and 3 ff. (catalog), 1 black-and-white frontispiece signed by J. Blondeau, woodcut vignettes in the text, headpieces, and tailpieces. Rare foxing, slight smudging from the frontispiece onto the title page, covers slightly soiled. Collective first edition of this collection of satirical and scatological texts, drawn from famous authors such as Rabelais and Jonathan Swift, members of the Académie de Troyes (Pierre-Jean Grosley, Lefèvre, Dubois), as well as historical correspondence such as letters from the Princess Palatine. It is illustrated with a frontispiece by Blondeau and several explicit woodcut vignettes within the text. Inspired by the *Merdiana* conceived by Alphonse Martainville in 1803, this rare work is believed to have been printed in Lille by Six-Horemans. Includes an excerpt from the bookstore’s catalog, where collectors can find the “Description of Six Types of Farts,” “The Art of Farting,” or even “La Chézonomie, or the Art of S…”. Stamp from Captain A. Ducros’s library on the front cover. A very fine copy in a delicate later binding.