the Burial of Earthly Pleasures
LA SERRE, Jean-Puget de.
Grab-Statt der weltlichen Ergötzlichkeiten, einstens in Französischer Sprache zubereitet … anjetzt zu Nutzen derer in die weltl. Freuden allzusehr verliebt- und der Französischen Sprache nicht kundigen Seelen in die Teutsche übersetzt durch Gaudentium Glæser.
Regensburg, Johann Conrad Peetz und Bader, 1738.
12mo, pp. [6], 231, [1 (blank)]; with engraved frontispiece, engraved portrait on verso of imprimatur leaf, and 5 further engraved plates; some light spotting and browning in places, but largely clean throughout; in later eighteenth-century blue boards, paper label (partly detached) on spine, and crossed out manuscript marks (title?) on spine; some wear and staining, with slight loss to head of spine, contemporary ink ownership marks on title, deleted.
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Grab-Statt der weltlichen Ergötzlichkeiten, einstens in Französischer Sprache zubereitet … anjetzt zu Nutzen derer in die weltl. Freuden allzusehr verliebt- und der Französischen Sprache nicht kundigen Seelen in die Teutsche übersetzt durch Gaudentium Glæser.
First edition in German of Tombeau des délices du monde, by the French dramatist and historian Jean-Puget de la Serre (1594–1665).
First published in 1630, and here in a version by the Bavarian priest and prolific translator Gaudentius Glaeser, the Tombeau details the temptations and hazards of five types of earthly delight. Each chapter is devoted to one of the senses, starting with sight and concluding with touch, explaining ways in which the vanity of the senses leads to moral and spiritual decay. Although essentially a work of asceticism, La Serre’s book is also an interesting essay on aesthetics, discussing inter alia female beauty (and how we might better thrill to something more appropriate), the seven wonders of the world, the pleasures of music both sacred and secular, gastronomy, and the nature of luxury. Each sense is illustrated with an engraving offering a hint of its associated dangers.
OCLC records no copies outside Germany.
