Author: GOMGAM.- [= L'Abbé L. BORDELON] Title: Gomgam, ou l'homme prodigieux transporté dans l'air, sur la terre, et sous les eaux. Livre veritablement nouveau. Titetutefnosy. Tome Second.
Description: Paris, Chez la Veuve Guillaume Saugrain, à l'entrée du Quay des Gesvres, du côté du Pont au Change, au Paradis, 1711. Small 8vo. Vol. 2 Only [of 2]. W. small woodc. vign. on printed title, woodcut head-piece [signed 'V LS'], w. 4 engr. pls. ['Crespy Scul.']. Very nice contemp. full red mor., spine w. intricate floral gilttooling, covers w. triple giltruling, edges of covers w. a single giltruled line. Inside dentelles. Spine in 6 compartments, giltlettered titleshield 'GOMGAM'. (Top of spine near headband a small chip; 1 Corner rubb./ bumped, a few scratches to covers.). [ã4, A8, B4, C8 ...Z8; Aa - Rr4, Ss4]. [Alternate 8s and 4s]. (VIII, 488 pp.). (Collector's mark E.F. within square [Not in Lugt] on printed title.). (all edges gilt, some deterioration of the gilding.). First edition, 1711, 4 engr. pls. [signed 'Crespy scul.' at pp. 25, 94, 218, 295]. [An Amsterdam ed. 1713 was ill. w. 12 plus 14 pls.]. Very nice copy of [unfortunately] only the second volume [of 2] vols. containing the strange and compelling story of the hero Gomgam's [imaginary] voyage from one place to another on a golden arrow, by air, over land or under water. Barbier, vol. II, c. 548: The author, Laurent Bordelon [1653 - 1730], according to the Biogr. Universelle [vol. II, p. 14], was a mediocre author, clergyman and doctor of divinity, whose literary pursuits have now long been forgotten, with the exception of perhaps 'les Imaginations extravagantes de M. Oufle' [1710 in 12mo], 'Les Tours de Maître Gonin' [1713], 'Dialogues du vivants' [1717]; Perhaps the same fate awaits the above 'Gomgam', but the subject matter and the fine red mor. binding, may still save the day: Liebmann & Wahl, p. 316, item 959 [Amsterdam, Roger, 1713, 2 vols. 12mo]: 'Der Held Gomgam besitzt einen goldenen Pfeil, der ihn über die Erde, durch das Wasser und in die Lüfte trägt.': Brockett, item 2039 [Paris, 1711 ed.]: See Gove, The Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction, p. 176 - 177: 'Extraterrestrial and subterranean voyages must be conducted by existent or imagined physical means, whether possible or impossible; that is, I have excluded voyages in dreams ... voyages by means of familiar, cabalistic, or Rosicrucian spirits or demons ... and voyages by magic or metamorphosis (as in the abbé Bordelon's Voyage "Gomgam", 1711 ... ' The same source on Bordelon's 'Mital' [p. 210 - 211] which is listed by Gove under the year of publication 1708 & 'Oufle' mentioned on p. 32 note: Unidentified collector's mark E.F. within square on printed title.
Keywords: imagination aeronautics flight & superstition privé bezit KO2649 ' stamp ' W49
Price: EUR 390.00 = appr. US$ 423.87 Seller: Antiquariaat B.M.Israel B.V.
- Book number: 9721