1595 SATYRE MENIPPEE ILLUSTRATED antique 16th CENTURY political & satirical work

Satyre Menippee de la vertu du catholicon d'Espagne.
Et de la tenue des Estats de Paris.
Plus un Discours sur l'interpretation du mot de Higuiero d'Inferno, & qui en est l'autheur.
Avec son pourtraict, et ceux des charlatans...

Written by Pierre Leroy, Jacques Gillot, Florent Chrestien, Pierre Pithou, Nicolas Rapin and Jean Passerat.

No publication place; 1595


132 [=120] pp. 


Rare new augmented edition (1st Tours 1593) of the satirical and political work about the tensions after the conversion of Henry IV to Catholicism. 

Illustrated with 3 woodcut portraits (the author and two "charlatans")


- Ref. USTC 4457. - Pettegree (FB) 33974. - STC French 310. - Cp. Barbier IV:426 (1593 ed.). - Not in Cioranescu, Adams, Tchemerzine-Scheler (other ed.).

Original vellum, manuscript title to the spine

 Size 3 1/3 by 5 3/4 inches

132 leaves (=264 pp.)

Soiling of the vellum, some toning, occasional spotting

Text in French
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The Satire Menippee (or La Satyre Menippee de la vertu du Catholicon d'Espagne) was a political and satirical work in prose and verse that mercilessly parodied the Catholic League and Spanish pretensions during the Wars of Religion in France, and championed the idea of an independent but Catholic France. The work was a collaborative effort of various functionaries, lawyers, clerics and scholars. It appeared at a time that coincided with the ascendance of Henry IV of France and the defeat of the League.

The title derives from the classical Greek and Roman literary genre "menippean satire", a form of carnivalesque literature in a free-form mixture of prose, verse and dialogue. Mikhail Bakhtin called the Satyre Menippee "one of the greatest political satires of world literature".

The Satyre Menippee was written in 1593 and published in Tours in 1594 during the Etats Generaux convened in Paris by the leader of the Catholic League, Charles, Duke of Mayenne.
Charles hoped to get himself elected to the French throne in the place of the pretender to the throne, the future Henry IV of France. The work was conceived by Pierre le Roy, canon of Rouen and chaplain to the cardinal of Bourbon, during discussions with friends at the home of Jacques Gillot, canon of the Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris.
The work was written by Nicolas Rapin, Jean Passerat and Florent Chrestien, and edited/revised by Pierre Pithou.

The philosophy of the group around Pithou and Rapin, which formed the ideological motivation for Satire Menippee, was that of the "Politiques" – moderate Catholics who privileged peace, conceived of a distinction between the State and Religion, and sought political accommodation with the Huguenots. By the end of the civil wars, the "politiques" were the principal target of attack of the Catholic League.

The work includes a description of a procession and all the forces of the League, a burlesque description of the opening of the Etats Genereaux, imaginary speeches by real personages such as the Duke of Mayenne, the legate of the Pope, and the cardinals Pelve (attributed to Chrestien) and Aubray (attributed to Pithou), and a number of additional satires and epigrams. The writers paint the miseries of the nation and the blindness of their detractors, and they encourage an alliance of the people and the monarchy to save the nation. The comical and openly derisive brilliance of the work made it extremely popular at the time.

Notably, Diderot's Encyclopedie praises the work for its "singularity" and notes its usefulness to Henry IV.
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