Charles-Francois Tiphaigne De La RocheBiblio.com
Giphantie bound with BEAUVESET Pierre Honoré Robbe de: Mon Odyssée ou le Journal de Mon Retour de Saintonge 1760
1760rif. 3006485Babylone" in fact Paris: n.p. 1760. Octavo with four engraved plates by Cochin after Desfriches illustrating the second work; contemporary mottled calfspine gilt with red label. First edition: a marvellous imaginary work describing an utopian community and prefiguring the uses of photography television and the telephone. Tiphaigne de la Roche 1729-1774 was a physician polymath and much-published writer. In Giphantie an anagram of the author's name the protagonist is lifted semi-conscious and transported by air to a beautiful garden where a charming spirit guide shows him around a "vaguely utopian society" Lewis. The book is a good example of the imaginary voyage genre using a quite plausible African setting but is more renowned for the fantastical series of technical advances that are discussed in striking detail including everything from prototype televisions to telephones. The discussion of the way in which the ruling spirits of the land have learnt to "fix" the fleeting images formed by light is so detailed that the novel is considered a milestone in the pre-history of photography. A relevant passage in the subsequent English edition of 1761 is often quoted: "You know that the rays of light reflected from different bodies form a picture and paint the image reflected on all polished surfaces for instance on the retina of the eye on water and on glass. The elementary spirits have sought to fix these fleeting images.". This copy is bound together with Pierre Honoré Robbe de Beauveset's rococo poem in four verses Mon Odyssée illustrated with four engraved plates. De Beauveset was an influential French writer known for his satires and erotic works. . n.p. unknown
Hordern House Rare Books · Australia4850,00 A$≈ 3020,68 €
