301 - [VILLIERS, Pierre de]. Treatise on Satire, or An Examination of How One Should Rebuke One’s Neighbor and How Satire Can Serve This Purpose.

[VILLIERS, Pierre de]. Treatise on Satire, or An Examination of How One Should Rebuke One’s Neighbor and How Satire Can Serve This Purpose. Rare first edition, in a beautiful full calf binding of the period. Paris, Jean Anisson, 1695. In-12, full brown speckled calfskin, spine with ornate raised bands, panels adorned with gilt fleurons, title label in havana morocco, ornate head and foot caps, speckled edges (contemporary binding). 8 unnumbered folios and 356 pages, title medallion, engraved headbands, initials, and tailpieces. Binding slightly rubbed, very rare and minimal foxing in the margins. First edition of this rare moral treatise by Pierre de Villiers, who advises against any personal attacks in satire. He himself wrote Satires and, having entered the Order of Cluny in 1689, was nicknamed by Boileau “the Braggart of Cluny.” [Barbier, Ouvrages anonymes, IV col. 767] Heraldic stamp on the title page. A fine copy in a contemporary binding.