[SATIRE]. Dictionnaire des girouettes, ou nos contemporains peints d'après eux-mêmes. Published in Paris, by Alexis Eymery, Pellicier and Delaunay, in 1815. In-8 format. Brown half-basane, cold-framed spine with faux-nerves, gilded title, paper-covered boards (modern binding). XII then from 14 to 491 pages, a color engraved allegorical frontispiece. Minor rubbing. Few and tiny freckles, trace of light wetness on the last 6 leaves, last leaf consolidated with adhesive tape. Second edition, published the same year as the first, of this satirical dictionary, whose title states that it reports "the speeches, proclamations, extracts of works written under the governments which have taken place in France for the last twenty-five years; and the places, favors and titles obtained in different circumstances by statesmen, men of letters, generals, artists, senators, songwriters, bishops, prefects, journalists, ministers, etc.". Published at a time of great political and social instability, the book pinpoints the personalities whose reversals and betrayals multiplied under the various regimes from the Revolution to the Hundred Days. The list of over 700 names and institutions includes Talleyrand, Fouché, Bernadotte, Cambacérès, Benjamin Constant, Fontanes, Murat, Boissy D'Anglas, Chénier and Choiseul-Praslin. In this second edition, a series of pennants attached to each patronymic indicates the number of successive reversals of character. In compiling this collection, the Alexis Eymery bookshop was able to draw on the notes of various contributors, hidden behind the name "Société de Girouettes", including Pierre-Joseph Charrin, Tastu, René Périn and César de Proisy d'Eppée. The frontispiece features an amusing color caricature of a representative of the people signing the various proclamations of regimes hanging from the blades of a windmill. Handwritten bookplate on the title page. A fine copy of this rare publication, the precursor of the weathervane concept that continued into the 20th century.