Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

[JANET, Louis, printer]. MADEMOISELLE DE LAFAYETTE. A Paris, Chez Janet, [1814].

[bound with]: PETIT SOUVENIR DES DAMES. A Paris: Chez Janet, [1814]. £385

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FIRST EDITIONS. Two parts in one volue, 24mo, pp. 48; [24], [12]; with engraved frontispiece portrait, engraved title-page, and six engraved plates by Leroux after Desenne; some light foxing in places; in contemporary pink boards, preserved within matching slip-case; some light wear but still an attractive copy.

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Sole edition, rare, of this delightful little almanac for women, combining a calendar for 1814 (in the Petit souvenir des dames) with an account of the life and loves of Louise Motier de Lafayette, the possible lover of, inter alia, Louis XIII, who became a nun and eventually Mother Superior of the Visitandine at Chaillot in the west of Paris. 

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After a sketch of her life, the volume contains a number of poems, opening with one on de Lafayette leaving court, but then turning to more general romantic topics (tears, true love), other historical romances (such as that of the poet Clément Marot with Marguerite de Navarre), and, sharpening the tone somewhat, coquetry (’On m’accuse d’être coquette, parce que l’aime à me parer; Si j’approche d’une toilette, On dit que c’est pour m’admirer...’)

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Grand-Carteret, in Les Almanaches Français, notes that Mademoiselle de Lafayette was one of a series, along with Marie-Antoinette and Madame Élisabeth. The copy he cites, from his own collection, is dated 1817, which suggests that it was for sale over several years. 

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Grand-Carteret 1806; not in OCLC. 

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