VESQUE DE PUTTELANGE, Jean. *King Guiot*, a new story, drawn - Lot 312

VESQUE DE PUTTELANGE, Jean. *King Guiot*, a new story, drawn from an old, dusty, and worm-eaten manuscript. First edition of this Rabelaisian-inspired satirical novel. From the library of the bibliophile René Amédée Choppin de Villy. No place, no date, 1791. 18mo, black half-basane, ribbed spine, marbled edges. VI and 136 pp. Binding scuffed, with a few small foxing spots. A rare first edition—the only one ever published—of this short satirical novel, which echoes Rabelais’s *Gargantua*. It follows the adventures of a whimsical and authoritarian ruler whose arbitrary decisions serve to denounce the abuses of power and the failings of late 18th-century society. On the inside back cover, an engraved ex-libris by the bibliophile René Amédée Choppin de Villy (1806–1886). The author’s name has been added in black ink to the title page, and there are two handwritten notes on the last two blank pages regarding the work: “King Guiot seems to me to have been written to recount the early love affairs of Louis XV.” A fine copy.