L'ecole de l'homme, ou Parallele des portraits du siecle & des tableaux de l'Ecriture Sainte ... Nouvelle edition (2 volumes bound as one)

de Gran, pseud.; Pierre DUPUY; Francois GENARD

Londres, 1753.

2 volumes bound as one. Contemporary gilt ruled speckled calf.  Gilt flourish to spine compartments.  Solid binding. Collated: [14] 209, [4] p.; [1] 240, [5], 7 p. Clean, unmarked pages. Marbled end pages. Book plate of E. De Payan Dumoulin. President du Tribunal du Puy. Dumoulin was a distinguished French archaeologist.  His family was politically active in the French Revolution. 

A banned book. The work was written as a satire of prominent figures of the day, including the King.  The publication of this book was suppressed.  French authorities seized and destroyed the book and the supposed author, Genard, was imprisoned in the Bastille. (de Gran being an anagram for Genard)  "On remarque dans cette production des impietes couvertes des passages de l'Ecriture. On y distingue surtout les portraits de Louis XV, de la marquise de Pompadour, du prince Edouard, etc. La polise saisit l'ouvrage, et chercha l'auteur; il fut arrete et conduit a la Bastille, le 10 Mars 1752. Plusieurs personnes de condition s'interessant a cet ecrivain, qui avait de l'esprit et faisait des vers, procurerent probablement son elargissement, au bout de quelques mois Genard profita de sa liberte pour voyager." (Barbier, Supp. aux diction. historiques).   Barbier II, 13-14.