BOUHOURS (Father Dominique): Remarques nouvelles sur la lang - Lot 14

BOUHOURS (Father Dominique): Remarques nouvelles sur la langue française. Mabre-Cramoisy, 1675. In-4 full granite-brown calf, spine richly decorated with gilt small irons, very nice roulette on the edges (period binding). A very fresh copy, with skilful restorations to the headpieces and along one of the spine ends, with the gilding restored.) Very fresh interior, with wide margins. A few rare light wet spots in the upper margin of a few leaves only.ORIGINAL EDITION IN-4.An in-12 and in-4 edition appeared the same year. IMPORTANT WORK FOR THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN THE XVIIth CENTURY. "When the first edition of Ménage's Observations sur la langue française appeared in 1672, P. Bouhours found fault with it, and shortly afterwards published an anonymous work, Doutes sur la langue française, proposed to Messieurs de l'Académie by a provincial gentleman, in which he not only expressed doubts, but repeatedly attacked Ménage. Ménage retaliated, publishing a second edition of his Observations, in which he defended himself against the accusations of the anonymous author, whom he criticized in turn. P. Bouhours took Ménage's responses very badly, and another volume followed; these were the Remarques nouvelles sur la langue française, which he published in 1675, and in which he said he had been attacked by Ménage." (in Ménage par Mademoiselle Elvire Samfiresco, Paris, 1902, p. 140) Exemplaire de la bibliothèque Lucien Allienne (1950). A fine copy.