Oeuvres meslées... [Première -] Seconde partie.

Bookseller Notes

The first, unauthorised, appearance in print of Saint-vremond, and a very scarce book: there are only 4 locations in WorldCat (none in the UK, Harvard only in the US), but COPAC and KVK reveal some others. Barbin, the printer, justifies the printing in the two Dedications. Saint-vremond, who is buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, was one of the numerous victims involved in the fall of Fouquet in 1661. He left France, ending up in England, where he received a royal pension. Soon he became one of the convivial participants in Hortense Mancini's salon. His posthumous uvres mesles, edited from the manuscripts by Silvestre and Des Maizeaux, were printed by Jacob Tonson (London, 1705, 2 vols.).He wrote of himself (in translation): 'In his opinion, life is too short for him to read all sorts of books and charge his memory with an infinite number of things at the expense of his judgement. He never read the most erudite writings in order to acquire knowledge, but the most sensible ones in order to strengthen his reason. Sometimes he would look for the books with the most delicacy in order to give delicacy to his taste, at others he would read the pleasantest ones in order to give charm to his spirit; and whatever he read, he made reading less of an occupation than a pleasure.'