[POREE, Charles-Gabriel]. La Mandarinade ou Histoire comique - Lot 115

[POREE, Charles-Gabriel]. La Mandarinade ou Histoire comique du Mandarinat de monsieur l'abbé de Saint-Martin marquis de Miskou. First edition of the account of the disproportionate farce played on the abbé de Saint-Martin. La Haye, Paupie, 1738. 3 volumes in 1 large in-12 volume, mottled havana calf, ribbed spine decorated with gilded fleurons and caissons, gilded fillet on the edges, interior roulette, mauve edges. T., (8) ff, 116 pp, T., (8) ff, 266 pp, 252 pp. Joints and spine bent. First edition of the story of La Mandarinade, a farce played on Abbé Michel de Saint-Martin, a wealthy, eccentric, presumptuous, vindictive and particularly ungainly-faced Caen nobleman, mocked by the nickname "abbé Malotru". In 1686, during the return of Alexandre de Chaumont as French ambassador to Siam, pranksters took advantage of the situation to make the Abbé de Saint-Martin believe that the King of Siam had appointed him Grand Mandarin and First Physician. The abbé was proud of this, and festivities were organized to celebrate the announcement and simulate a ridiculous initiation ceremony; to mark the occasion, the abbé's cellar was emptied by the jokers. Frightened by the prospect of such a long journey, the abbé finally declines the offer; he dies two years later convinced that he is a high-ranking Siamese dignitary. Attached is a detached portrait of Abbé Saint-Martin engraved by Simon Thomassin for this edition; it shows the abbé wearing eight pairs of stockings, one of his many eccentricities, and writing a letter addressed "to Siam" while touching the mandarin's cap that was given to him. Engraved bookplate on front cover naming "Ph. du Douet". A fine copy of this unusual and highly amusing work.