[GUILLERAGUES (Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, comte de)]. - Lot 40

[GUILLERAGUES (Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, comte de)]. Portuguese letters translated into French. Seconde Edition. Paris : Claude Barbin, 1669. - In-12, 145 x 82 : (3 ff.), 182 pp., (1 f.). Brown calf, spine ribbed and decorated, speckled edges (period binding). In French in the text, no. 109. - Diesbach-Soultrait, Six siècles de littérature française, XVIIe siècle, I, 2010, no. 114 (original edition). Very rare second edition, published on the same date as the original, with the same pagination and the "achevé d'imprimer" also dated January 4, 1669. This correspondence of five passionate letters was written by Chevalier de Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne, Comte de Guilleragues (1628-1685). It wasn't until 1926 that he was recognized as the true author of these letters, considered to be among the "most beautiful love letters in the world". They feature a nun named Mariana Alcoforada writing to a French officer who had seduced and then abandoned her. A good copy in contemporary binding, from the library of Michel de Bry (1890-1970), who built up his library mainly in the post-war period, "focusing on the arts and letters, with a selection of manuscripts and printed works from the 15th to 18th centuries, mostly in original condition (many French bindings with 16th and 17th-century decoration), as well as objets d'art" (reliures.bnf.fr). Binding skilfully restored. Light spotting. Ink stains on pages 29 and 31. Provenance: Handwritten bookplate in contemporary brown ink on the flyleaf: "apartient à Madame Francise Poisson veuve de Frances Paul." - Michel de Bry (1966, no. 6), with rectangular piece of burgundy leather bearing the gilt inscription "pro captu lectoris", punctuated with a grape leaf.