![PATIN, Guy (1601-1672). Autograph letter signed to ‘Mons[ieu]r de Salins, le puisné, Docteur en Medecine, / A Beaune’, Paris, 27 March, 1655, 3 pages, folio (280 x 194mm), bifolium, integral address panel, docketed by recipient (seal tear, short tears at folds, small puncture in centre of f.2, remnant of guard on verso of f.2).](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10456_0109_000(patin_guy_autograph_letter_signed_to_monsieur_de_salins_le_puisne_doct113812).jpg?w=1)
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PATIN, Guy (1601-1672). Autograph letter signed to ‘Mons[ieu]r de Salins, le puisné, Docteur en Medecine, / A Beaune’, Paris, 27 March, 1655, 3 pages, folio (280 x 194mm), bifolium, integral address panel, docketed by recipient (seal tear, short tears at folds, small puncture in centre of f.2, remnant of guard on verso of f.2).
AN EXCEPTIONAL AND VERY EXTENSIVE LETTER OF SIGNIFICANT LITERARY INTEREST: PATIN PRAISES THE WORKS BY RABELAIS, BODIN, LIPSIUS, MONTAIGNE AND CHARRON, ‘BOOKS ABLE TO TAKE THE WORLD BY THE NOSE’.
The letter is addressed to a fellow medical doctor, M. de Salins of Beaune (Burgundy). It first discusses a treatise written by Patin's son against Simon Piètre, as well as medical questions.
After recommendations of the great Latin epistolary stylists – beginning with Cicero, then Pliny the younger, Casaubon, Scaliger and Erasmus, with a more lukewarm recommendation of Justus Lipsius (‘son style ne vaut rien’) – Patin endorses a work by Clement Marot (‘Vostre livre de Marot n’est point mauvais’), recommending that it be kept safely out of sight of the monks ‘lest they steal it and burn it’. This may be added to an ideal library of the great sceptics: Rabelais, Bodin, Lipsius, Montaigne and Charron, ‘books able to take the world by the nose [Voila des livres qui sont capables de prendre le monde par le nez]’.
He also quotes the two main books by the Jesuit Garasse, La Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps and Les Recherches des Recherches (both sharply critical of Patin’s intellectual circle, known as the ‘libertins érudits’), which may best be used, according to Patin, for ‘autres choses’ – a rather crude allusion that these books should be used as toilet paper.
The letter closes with a discussion of works by Erasmus, and of current affairs, including the recent death of Innocent X, the possibility of war against England, and other matters.
A wonderful, lively, and long letter, of great interest and rarity.
J.-H. Reveillé-Parise, Lettres de Gui Patin, Paris, J.-B. Baillieère, 1846, CLIX ; Soultrait Bib. Bonna XVII 228.
AN EXCEPTIONAL AND VERY EXTENSIVE LETTER OF SIGNIFICANT LITERARY INTEREST: PATIN PRAISES THE WORKS BY RABELAIS, BODIN, LIPSIUS, MONTAIGNE AND CHARRON, ‘BOOKS ABLE TO TAKE THE WORLD BY THE NOSE’.
The letter is addressed to a fellow medical doctor, M. de Salins of Beaune (Burgundy). It first discusses a treatise written by Patin's son against Simon Piètre, as well as medical questions.
After recommendations of the great Latin epistolary stylists – beginning with Cicero, then Pliny the younger, Casaubon, Scaliger and Erasmus, with a more lukewarm recommendation of Justus Lipsius (‘son style ne vaut rien’) – Patin endorses a work by Clement Marot (‘Vostre livre de Marot n’est point mauvais’), recommending that it be kept safely out of sight of the monks ‘lest they steal it and burn it’. This may be added to an ideal library of the great sceptics: Rabelais, Bodin, Lipsius, Montaigne and Charron, ‘books able to take the world by the nose [Voila des livres qui sont capables de prendre le monde par le nez]’.
He also quotes the two main books by the Jesuit Garasse, La Doctrine curieuse des beaux esprits de ce temps and Les Recherches des Recherches (both sharply critical of Patin’s intellectual circle, known as the ‘libertins érudits’), which may best be used, according to Patin, for ‘autres choses’ – a rather crude allusion that these books should be used as toilet paper.
The letter closes with a discussion of works by Erasmus, and of current affairs, including the recent death of Innocent X, the possibility of war against England, and other matters.
A wonderful, lively, and long letter, of great interest and rarity.
J.-H. Reveillé-Parise, Lettres de Gui Patin, Paris, J.-B. Baillieère, 1846, CLIX ; Soultrait Bib. Bonna XVII 228.
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