Maurice Rheims (Paris)

(25 cm), 96 pp., frontispiece, 15 unnumbered leaves of plates (some in colour). Lots numbered 1-240. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Sale catalogue of the library of Maurice Goudeket (Colette’s widower), including a copy of Pascal’s Pensées (1670) bound for Loménie de Brienne, one of eight known copies of La Rochefoucauld’s Maximes (1664), and a copy of Descartes’ Les Principes de la philosophie (1668) heavily annotated by Bossuet (acquired by the Bibliothèque Nationale; Enrichissements de la Bibliothèque nationale, 1961-1973, Paris 1974, p.196). There was a surprising departure from the Bibliothèque Nationale’s usual practice – to exercise its right of pre-emption at the winning bid: “Its representatives, seated in a solid phalanx at the front of the room, indicated, before the bidding began on each of the lots which it desired, that it was willing to buy it at the estimated price, this figure was then repeated by the auctioneer with minatory mien and voice, and no one present uttered or gestured and the lot was knocked down” (Arthur Rau, “The Goudeket sale” in The Times Literary Supplement, 31 March 1961, p.208). ¶ Good, unmarked copy.