BRÉCOURT Guillaume Marcoureau de In reality: Jean-François... Lot 10

BRÉCOURT Guillaume Marcoureau de [In reality: Jean-François Juvenon dit LA THUILLERIE]. Les fragmens de Molière. Comedy. By Monsieur Brecourt. The Hague, Adrian Moetjens, 1682; small in-12 (128 x 78 mm) of 41 p., bound in jansenist red morocco, spine ribbed, inner lace and gilt edges (Trautz-Bauzonnet). Rare counterfeit of the original edition, published the same year in Paris by Jean Ribou, without author's name or privilege. A real confusion has been maintained for three hundred and forty years on the name of the real author. Since 1676, the play had been performed several times, notably before Louis XIV. Attributed at the time to Brécourt, it was later attributed to Charles Chevillet de Champmeslé, then to Molière himself by Paul Lacroix. However, a recent study has made it possible to identify the true author without the slightest doubt. The register of the Chambre syndicale des libraires-éditeurs, found and consulted by Alain Riffaud*, gives his name opposite the title of the play in order to obtain a privilege: the actor Jean-François Juvenon, known as LA THUILLERIE. Mr. Riffaud shows that Blageart, the printer of the original edition, having finished printing the work at the end of a booklet, had given up printing the privilege on an additional sheet which would then have borne the name of La Thuillerie. It is this name that we must now retain, forgetting that of Brécourt. Trautz-Bauzonnet has made this slim volume a jewel. Alain Riffaud, "Enquête sur l'auteur des Fragmens de Molière", 1682, in Bulletin du Bibliophile, I, 2020, p. 95-118.