Fablos, contes, epitros et autros pouesios prouvencalos [Fables, tales, epistles, and other Provencal poems] - 1829

Aix-en-Provence: H. Gaudibert, 1829 *** ONLY EDITION; CONTAINING NINETY-EIGHT FABLES IN PROVENCAL (OCCITAN) VERSE glossed in French, together with a verse prologue celebrating La Fontaine and a long introductory essay in French on the Provencal language. The latter was written originally for an etymological dictionary whose publication had been delayed and which was, in fact, never published. ONE OF ONLY 200 COPIES, printed for friends of the author and fans of 'lo gai saber'--ie, the Troubadour aesthetic. (The allusion here is to the Consistori del Gai Saber, a literary school or circle established at Toulouse in 1323, which codified Troubadour versification and fostered Troubadour-revival poetry slams.) -- Known for his numerous and charming poems and songs, the author was born at Eguilles, a commune about six miles northwest of Aix, on 19 September 1771. He taught for some years at Eguilles, and then married the owner of a silkworm-farm at Rognes. He moved afterwards to Aix, where he served as the town's assistant librarian and briefly as librarian; but he was relieved of his duties during the Revolution of 1830, presumably for political reasons. Diouloufet died of a violent apoplexy on 19 May 1840. His most famous work was Leis magnans: Pouemo didactique, en quatre chants (The silkworms: A didactic poem in four cantos) 1819. *** Collation: 8vo (217 x 141 mm UNTRIMMED): 258 leaves, paginated [i-ix] x-xxxix [xl-xliv], [1] 2-464 [465-472]. Illustration: Two lithographed plates (only, of five) by Marius Reinaud (1795-1868), wood-engraved vignette on title. Binding: ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPPERS, plain laid pastedowns. References: Brunet ii 1148; OCLC 6950736 (Cleveland, Harvard). Condition: Scattered foxing, page-numbers 343-44 punched through, two quires somewhat browned as usual; the wrappers sympathetically rebacked, a bit of the upper foredge skillfully restored; withal A VERY ATTRACTIVE COPY..