LA FAYETTE, Mme de, ou SANDRAS DE COURTILZ - Mémoires de Hol - Lot 409

LA FAYETTE, Mme de, ou SANDRAS DE COURTILZ - Mémoires de Hollande. Suivant la copie imprimée à Paris, chez Estienne Michallet (Hollande), 1678. Pet. in-12, (2) ff, 211 pp, printed in pet. car., title almost entirely stained, qqs. light stains inside, midnight blue morocco pl., crowned numeral on corners of boards, spine ribbed and decorated with same, int. dent. (CAPÉ). GAY III, 119. WILLEMS 1921. LEVER 263. One of two forgeries published in Holland in the year of the original edition. Attribution remains uncertain. ''In a thesis defended in 1970, M. Nicolas Lens believes that these Memoirs were written by Pierre-Daniel Huet, bishop of Avranches''(Lever). Set in the Jewish community of Amsterdam, this novel is about the love of a young Jewish girl who converts to Christianity to marry a young cadet from the Lusignan family. The author seems well-informed, and has no doubt read Richard Simon's 1674 book Cérémonies et coutumes qui s'observent aujourd'hui parmi les Juifs.