Jean Demaux, president of the Compagnie des chemins de fer d - Lot 0

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Jean Demaux, president of the Compagnie des chemins de fer d - Lot 0
Jean Demaux, president of the Compagnie des chemins de fer du Nord, meticulously built up his library in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a member of what Lucien Scheler called "Les Samedistes", a bibliophilic academy of enthusiasts known as the Académie de Saint Michel. This library has since been preserved by his family, who now honor us with their trust. Its uniqueness can be seen in its subtle resources. The collector had a preference for Baroque aesthetics and 17th-century literature. We will not find here the great classics of literary history, but rather the desire to explore the margins, expressed by the collection of a large number of tales, facetious, gallant or burlesque works, of which Scarron is one of the jewels, and later, the picturesque works of Restif de la Bretonne. We also note his keen eye for detail, a characteristic of fine bibliophiles. For example, let's take a look at the Recueil des plus beaux vers mis en chant, 1667 (Bacilly) or Les Délices de la poésie galante, 1667, a seemingly modest selection of works by Molière, La Fontaine, Corneille and Perrault. These hidden texts are not always included in collective editions. Among the nuggets, we'd like to highlight the first edition of Charles Perrault's first published fairy tale, of which only three copies are known; as well as a partly unpublished manuscript by Sauval, the historian of Paris, and a collection of mazarinades that once belonged to Nicolas Fouquet. Drawing up this catalog was both an exhilarating task and a personal pleasure, which we hope to share with all bibliophiles who take the time to take an interest in this library. Michel Siegelbaum - Adrien Blanchet
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