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Baltasar GRACIAN & Abraham Nicolas AMELOT DE LA HOUSSAYE

L'Homme de Cour, traduit de l'espagnol de Baltasar Gracian

Chez La Veuve-Martin & Jean Boudot, à Paris 1684, In-12 (9,5x16,8cm), (72) 311pp. (10), relié.

First edition in-12, after the original in-4 released on the same date. Translation of Baltasar Gracian's Spanish by Amelot de la Houssaye. This edition does not have the frontispiece representing Louis XIV battleship found in the edition in-4.
Binding full brown sheepskin speckled contemporary. Back with ornate nerves. title label of brown sheepskin. Little lack in mind. Upper bit tightly split in the lead. Friction. From page 289 to the end, trace of pale wetting at the bottom corner.
The Court Man is a fundamental book at the end of the seventeenth century, and had a resounding echo throughout Europe. In a way, it is a reaction against puritanism, austerity and the spirit of vanities proper to the seventeenth century. The book rehabilitates the coalescent appearance of the essence and justifies the lie or dissimulation by political skill and propriety, making the perfect court man, an unsurpassed model of "the honest man". "The appearance can even, if necessary, make up for the lack of substance". The work consists of a collection of 300 maxims whose hidden model is King Ferdinand II of Aragon, called "the Catholic", it reveals a will and a stylistic skill seeking to condense the maximum meaning in the formula most brief and as concise as possible. This court man not only resurrects the chivalrous spirit but will provide a lasting model of perfection for man in society, for the gentleman or the dandy.

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