Robinet de la cordière - Mémoires secrets pour servir à...

[ROBINET DE LA CORDIÈRE, Claude-François] Secret Memoirs to Serve the History of Persia. ... Vitiis nemo sine nascitur, optimus ille est / Qui minimis urgetur. Horat. In Amsterdam, at the expense of the Company, M. DCC. XLV [1745]. A volume in 12mo, bound in half calf of the period, boards covered with marbled paper, spine with raised bands adorned with gilded and flowering compartments, title piece in brown morocco. Title page printed in red and black, adorned with an elegant engraved frontispiece by P. Tanjé. The copy is enriched with a “List or Key, of the proper names in these Memoirs,” allowing the deciphering of the characters. Published under the veil of anonymity by Claude-François Robinet de la Cordière, this work sits within the great tradition of scandalous chronicles and racy novels with a key that were highly popular in the eighteenth century. Under the pretense of a supposed Persian court, the text is in reality a transparent and sharp political satire aimed at the French court, the Regency, and the morals of the aristocracy under Louis XV. The presence of the famous “Key” at the end of the volume is particularly valuable as it lifts the veil on the true identities hidden behind the oriental-sounding names (for example, Abdoul designating the Count of Morville or Ali-Homajou designating the Duke of Orléans, Regent of France). Printed in Amsterdam at the expense of the Company, this book illustrates the freedom of tone and the subversion of clandestine or semi-clandestine Dutch Enlightenment publishing. In the Age of Enlightenment, narratives of oriental travels and Persian fictions fascinated European readers, notably thanks to the monumental success of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters (1721). Satirical authors understood very well: transferring the lascivious intrigues, power rivalries, and scandals of the Versailles court into the sumptuous, distant setting of Isfahan was the ideal way to escape censorship while unleashing readers’ passions. It is said that diplomats and grandees of that world coveted these Amsterdam editions, enjoying crossing off the names in the book’s “Key” to discover which minister or duchess was caricatured under the features of a vizier or a Persian princess. For the modern bibliophile, possessing such a copy with its complete key is a delicious testimony to the frondeur and libertine spirit of the eighteenth century.

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